File Import Options

[James.Johnson]

Hi,

Some of my users are experiencing issues with the csv file format for mobile phone uploads. They have been keying the data within the csv and regularly saving this during the day ready to import but have closed and re-opened the file as required. When they re-open the file they have lost some of the formatting and end up with the below as an example.

imeiNumber	simNumber
3.53228E+14	8.94413E+18

I understand the nature of a CSV file but is there any reason why the option to upload from Excel is not available? Is there a simple workaround that I can attempt other than telling them to keep the file open all day ready to import or just manually key the mobile data in?

Thanks

[Steve Giller]

@James.Johnson I'm not sure that uploading from Excel wouldn't help with this issue, as it's Excel that is breaking (well, technically reformatting) your values.
That aside, the workaround would be to pre-format the whole spreadsheet as text before you enter any data, save the file as an Excel workbook, and only change to CSV when you are ready to make the final save prior to uploading.

[James.Johnson]

Thanks Steve, that was my thinking also.

Cheers

[Steve Giller]

@James.Johnson Just a heads-up - there are a number of hints on the interwebs suggesting a "Number" format with 0 decimal places will do the same. I tested this and once you get past 15 digits, subsequent digits revert to 0 no matter what you type, so do stick to text only.

Or, of course, find an alternative CSV editor that doesn't "help" you as much as Excel whilst still displaying the data in a tidy grid format.

[James.Johnson]

Cheers Steve