Excel auto formats cell in CSV flat file.

Question

Hi,
I am using an etext template to generate a CSV file (comma separated) and that piece works fine. But as soon as you open the generated file in Excel, it changes the format of one of the columns to a date! And once you have opened it in Excel, saving it changes the column value, so now I have wrong data!
The field value is : 8050-09-7 (Alpha)
When opened in Excel, it becomes: 9/7/8050 (Excel auto formats it)
If I save the file as a .xls file and not a .csv file, it works, but now when I open it, the entire row shows up in one line in Excel and each field is not in each cell.
The user wants to see the output first, verify the data and save it as a CSV file and export it to a vendor software.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Shaf

Answer 1

Hi Steven,
I think I understand what you are trying to say.
My data is getting generated initially as XML; I merge it with my eText template to get the final output. If I save the output as .txt, its fine. But users have a hard time reading comma delimited lines, though it will work fine for the customers.
<G_COMPONENTS>
<ID>12215</ID>
<PRODUCT_ID>379-9006-00</PRODUCT_ID>
*<CAS_NUMBER>8050-09-7</CAS_NUMBER>*
<CHEMICAL_NAME>GUM ROSIN</CHEMICAL_NAME>
<SUPPLIER>Name</SUPPLIER>
<PERCENT_WEIGHT>0</PERCENT_WEIGHT>
<PERCENT_VOLUME>0</PERCENT_VOLUME>
</G_COMPONENTS>
Thanks,
Shaf