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I am stunned that this is actually an issue even when dealing with CSV and Excel. It is quite easy to store numbers in Excel and treat them as simple text.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you put an apostrophe in front of the number it will store it as text but will appear as a number. Just to be clear - you can then save the xls/xlsx to csv and the csv won't contain the leading apostrophe, but will show the whole number.
If you put the apostrophe in front of a number, and save it as csv, that works. But if you reopen that exact same file, Excel will still misinterpret the number. The issue here was that there's no way to let Excel know that this value in this CSV file is not a number. The only way around it that I know of is to stick with xlsx, which has its own pain points.
No, you can set the import to treat it as a text field. It is really easy and this should not be a problem. The import can define field by field what it should be treated as (most often used with dates).
So it's not only $500, but $500 + John's salary which I think is far higher than this.
Does anyone know how to get around that Excel CSV issue, where Excel will "helpfully" convert a number-like value into a meaningless value in scientific notation, even if the number was quoted like "1234"? That was a huge pain point in a previous work that I did.
Can't you set the number format on the cell?
"A UPS tracking number is 15 digits or something like that, but a FedEx tracking number is 24 digits. If you opened it in Excel it would truncate it, because it would be like, “That is a 24-digit-number. We should store this in scientific notation.”" I am stunned that this is actually an issue even when dealing with CSV and Excel. It is quite easy to store numbers in Excel and treat them as simple text.
Edit: I'm referring to the way that most people open CSVs in Excel, by clicking on the file and having Excel be the default CSV program, not by importing it. Is there a way to turn off the scientific notation for good?
"A UPS tracking number is 15 digits or something like that, but a FedEx tracking number is 24 digits. If you opened it in Excel it would truncate it, because it would be like, “That is a 24-digit-number. We should store this in scientific notation.”" I am stunned that this is actually an issue even when dealing with CSV and Excel. It is quite easy to store numbers in Excel and treat them as simple text.
Nope, this is a legitimate Excel issue when opening CSVs in Excel. If you know a fix without editing the cell data type and saving back into Excel format, I'm all ears! Edit: I'm referring to the way that most people open CSVs in Excel, by clicking on the file and having Excel be the default CSV program, not by importing it. Is there a way to turn off the scientific notation for good?
Cool story bro, but it give me hives just reading it. "We didn't know anything about physical order fulfilment so we hacked our way into a local optimum, rather than asking anyone who knew". Or, as we say hereabouts, a month in the lab solves a day in the library. But it only cost $500! Well, I'm sure that'll come as a lovely surprise come payday when John discovers he's working pro bono. Also, that product looks dis…
Can't wait for the next product wich can maximize your working time. Because work is the purpose of life ofc. People are so hurry to reach their death...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope, this is a legitimate Excel issue when opening CSVs in Excel. If you know a fix without editing the cell data type and saving back into Excel format, I'm all ears! Edit: I'm referring to the way that most people open CSVs in Excel, by clicking on the file and having Excel be the default CSV program, not by importing it. Is there a way to turn off the scientific notation for good?
You edit the data type because it isn't a number your importing, its a shipping tag. On import you set the column to text, its right there in the import dialog.
"A UPS tracking number is 15 digits or something like that, but a FedEx tracking number is 24 digits. If you opened it in Excel it would truncate it, because it would be like, “That is a 24-digit-number. We should store this in scientific notation.”" I am stunned that this is actually an issue even when dealing with CSV and Excel. It is quite easy to store numbers in Excel and treat them as simple text.
Excel insisted on formatting the columns as dates and the month-year rows would turn into month-year-day columns, turning the year into the day and using 2015 as the year.
I told him to just open up the file in a text editor, as I didn't feel like trying to figure out Excel's interface for him or coach him through an LibreOffice install.
If the person I'd needed the info from was not in the organization, as this situation had been, I'd have considered the approach unworkable and figured out a different way to get the info I needed, as they did. Figuring out and teaching people how to use Excel is not how I want to spend my time.