How To Prevent Excel From Converting a Comma Delimited Field Into A Number Type Field

[JBLT-77]

I have a report that is exported from a system into a .csv file format.  There is a field in the report that contains values separated by commas after every seven characters.  For some reason, when the file is opened in Excel, excel converts this field to a number type field and so the commas end up being shifted, and the integrity of the values in the field is lost.  Is there a way to prevent excel from converting this field when the file is opened so that the integrity of the values contained in the field of the report is maintained?

This is what the field in the file should look like:

This is what Excel Ends Up Doing To The Field:

[#2]

Hi @JBLT-77 

when you open CSV files, Excel does not ask for any formatting etc.

The easiest way around this is to rename the file from filename.csv into filename.txt

When you open it now from within Excel, the Text-import-wizard gets launched, and in the third step you can define the format for each column. Which should be text in your case.