Comments on: How to convert Excel files to CSV (comma delimited) and CSV UTF-8

Comma separated values (CSV) is a widely used format that stores tabular data (numbers and text) as plain text. Its popularity and viability are due to the fact that CSV files are supported by many different applications and systems at least as an alternative import/export format. Continue reading →

Comments page 3. Total comments: 73

  1. Excellent, the section "How to convert Excel to CSV UTF-8" was precisely the solution that I needed for my problem!
    Excel kept saving the csv with semicolons instead of commas, despite having changed the regional settings as had been recommended elsewhere. With this work around I did get the right csv file to import in another system.

    Thank you!

  2. I am facing the same issue as that by Muhammad Farooq. I repeat here, when I save my Excel file as csv (Comma delimited) and reopen in Excel, again it is separate columns, instead of being in one column. I have tried many times but not successful.

    Kindly, explain what wrong I am doing.

    Much obliged in advance

    1. Hello, Muhammad,

      Please open your file using a text editor like Notepad. See if the comma delimiter is there.

      1. Yes I also face the same problem. when i open it using notepad I do see comma separated values. How should I proceed ?

  3. Hi,
    Tricky problem : I saved my excel file into csv type. All is ok but when I reopen the csv doc the layout is still in table. No comma.
    I checked the properties : it is really a .csv
    Do you have any idea of what I missed ?
    Thank you in advance for your support.
    Best Regards, S..

    1. Hello, Muhammad,

      Please open your file using a text editor like Notepad. See if the comma delimiter is there.

  4. Hi,
    Tricky problem : I saved my excel file into csv type. All is ok but when I reopen the csv doc the layout is still in table. No comma.
    I checked the properties : it is really a .csv
    Do you have any idea of what I missed ?
    Thank you in advance for your support.
    Best Regards, S..

  5. Hi.
    exellent ...
    very usefull..

    thanks alot ...

    good luck .

  6. This section "How to convert Excel to CSV UTF-8" really worked for me, after many unsuccessful attempts trying almost anything, using both Excel and Calc programmes.

    Save excel file as txt with Unicode, replace, in this txt, tabs with commas and save as csv (UTF-8). CSV file now has all special characters, COOL and many thanks!

  7. I am trying to convert Excel to .csv format so I can import into a database. I followed all the steps you listed. However, when I open the .csv file in Notepad to make sure the formatting is correct, I find after the last line of data there are hundreds of commas running down the left side.

    A co-worker does not have this problem when she tries it on her PC. Which makes me think there is a setting of some kind in Excel or an add-in not enabled that I need on my PC. Our IT staff are not familiar with the "inner workings" of Excel can't really help with this issue.

    Can you help? Thanks.

  8. It great,thank you.

  9. You are awesome! I've been working on this for a couple hours and banging my head against the wall but did not try to Notepad>Find and Replace thing. Worked like a charm. Also, thank you for your explanations as to why using foreign languages cannot be done the 'above way' and then you perfectly explained how to do it below. Kudos!

    Literally relieved - and my coworkers will be relieved into the future as well!

    Thank you again,

    Eric

  10. Really good article! Thanks!
    I followed your instructions to import contacts containing Japanese characters, however I had the following problem:

    Japanese characters appear in symbols in Outlook 2013, like this -> Iwasaki 岩崎(幸)

    I checked csv converted file opening again in Excel 2013 and Japanese characters were readable. However, not when imported to Outlook 2013.

    Could you help me in this last step?

    Thanks

  11. Wow! Great stuff, nice work.

    Is it possible to preserve mathematical formulas in an excel sheet when you transfer it to csv format. For example X raise to power 2(X superscript 2) in excel will become X2 in csv. Any idea on how to fix this..

  12. thank you
    exactly what i needed :)
    Happy New Year

  13. how do we convert the .xls to .csv or .txt usign cmd (dos) ?

  14. Hi,
    I just want save my excel 2010 as csv file and close it.
    but the converted csv file always show 000000 after the 15th character on the cell.
    How to fix it, show I have the correct data on the cell such as in xlsx and csv format. thanks...

  15. This week I was working on some project that uses excel sheet, dbf and ASCII formated data and I was a bit challenged as how to convert data from excel 2007 to the other formats it does not directly have by itself.

    Finally, I went to GOOGLE search with the question I had and wrote my question on the search bar of google window.

    Automatically,my problems are resolved by reading the suggestions forwarded by respective experts in the subject matter and I am done with my problem and also I am comfortable using the excel 2007.

    Thank you so much and I will come to you with questions as I proceed with my project in the preceeding time.

    With Regards,
    Habtamu

  16. hi! I'm using msoffice 2010. how can i convert excel file to csv file?
    thanks

    1. Lemuel,

      Exactly as described in this article : ) All the solutions work for Excel 2010 as well.

      1. Hi Svetlana,

        I have been trying using double quotes to ignore the commas within the data value, but still not successful. Will be grateful if you can help me out.
        P.S. I am using office 2010 (Microsoft Excel Comma Separated Values File (.csv))

  17. I have a excel where data ias maintained in 4 diffrent column for example
    Sr_NO NO_BOR TITLE BOR_S_NAME
    1 2 Mrs. JOSHI
    How do i bring 3rd and 4th column of the row to next new line while converting excel to csv.

  18. Dears:

    I can't say more then thanks to your helpfully dialog

  19. I mean Svetlana!

  20. Thank you Aleks,
    Very useful, it works!

  21. Hello,

    Sorry about being a bit off the topic, but really need help.
    I am trying to save an Excel spreadsheet to a tab delimited text file. Information in the spreadsheet contains french accent symbols. They appear alright in the spread sheet, but after saving a tab delimited file these symbols turn into question marks.
    Now the most interesting part - i have changed a setting in tools (next to save button) to unicode and unicode utf-8, but none of them changed a thing and.

    I would really appreciate if someone could help me out with this.

    Thanks,
    Alex.

    1. Hello Aleks,

      It looks really strange. Try saving your spreadsheet as Unicode text and then changing the file extension from .txt to .tsv. It should work.

  22. Hi Phivos,

    It looks like you and the person who created a .csv file have different decimal and list separators set up in your Windows Region and Language settings.

    You can find a few possible ways to fix this in this article - Convert CSV to Excel: problems and solutions.

  23. Hi there,

    They send me a CSV file in which the information is separated into columns. Once I open it on my PC the information per line is displayed in one cell per line and all columns are distringuished with a comma between them (i.e. a comma delimited CSV file), although the person that created it had the information separated into columns. I do not want to use every time the function Data>Text to columns in order to bring the information back to columns.

    What is wrong with my excel 2007 that I have installed and the CSVs sent to me are only opened in this comma delimited mode?

    Regards,

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