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lindswhitehead's avatar
lindswhitehead
Copper Contributor
Apr 13, 2019

Importing CSV with numbers as text - for bar codes

Hi,

 

I occasionally export both contacts and products as CSV from my POS software to do bulk edits in Excel. They contain both phone numbers (beginning with "0") and bar codes (13 digit). 

 

I used to be able to import these using a wizard and ensure these were treated as text in order to preserve them. However, with Office 365, this wizard doesn't seem to give me that option. 

 

9857840395721 becomes:

9850000000000 displayed as 9.85E+12


Does anyone know how to import CSV numbers as text?

 

Regards

 

Lindsay

 

excel
office 365

2 Replies

  • SergeiBaklan's avatar
    SergeiBaklan
    Diamond Contributor
    Apr 13, 2019

    lindswhitehead , you have few options.

     

    First, open Data->Get Data->Query options and unselect default Type Detection

    That works for current workbook only.

     

    Second, if above option is ON, starting your query do not load it immediately, click on Transform

    and in right pane delete automatically added Changed Type step

    after that close Power Query editor selecting Keep changes.

     

    Third, you may use old wizard enabling it in options

    after that use it to load your CSV from Data->Get Data->Legacy Wizard

    selecting Text for the column(s) on third step of the wizard

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