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0 pointsgregjor3y ago0 comments

If you use Excel's import wizard it lets you choose how to format the imported columns. Older versions of Excel supported this. The most recent version, the Office365 desktop app (but I don't think the web app) has a checkbox to turn off automatic data type detection.

You can also export CSV data as ="2-9" to force Excel to interpret it literally. I do that with US ZIP Codes to prevent the conversion to integer, i.e. 02134 turning into 2134.

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n4r93y ago

That actually works! I didn't realise using the import wizard would be different to just double-clicking the CSV file.

I'll still argue that Libre Office Calc's workflow is better at this, in that it presents you with a wizard when you double-click the file and by default does not transform something to a date. But I now have an instruction to give to others who come up against this problem, so thank you.

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