How to stop my .csv from reading data as a date.

[dmbfan 9]

So I am creating a page scraper that pulls in account numbers from a site.

 

Typically the account numbers are in the format 111-222-333. There really isn't any standard number of numbers or dashes and I am able to scrape them all fine into a column into a .csv file.

 

The problem occurs when an account number happens to hit a number pattern that matches a date. (i.e. 3-3-09). My .csv file then tries to be helpful and converts the value to a date 03/03/09. While I am all for helpfulness, this really screws things up for me and I can't figure out how to make it stop doing it. When I go into format cells and try to change it from a date format to general or text, it then converts the date to the numeric value for that date instead of the scraped data of 3-3-09.

 

This really isn't even a ubot issue probably, but I am just looking to see if there is away around this.

 

Thanks for any help people can give.

[a2mateit 395]

I know it sounds like a very simple fix, but you can try saving it as a .txt with comma separated values when setting it up.

 

If it's not absolutely critical that you open it back up as a .csv, it won't automatically convert.

[LoWrIdErTJ - BotGuru 904]

is it ubot converting it or when you open it in excel?

 

in excell format your table cells to text only and it wont do that.

 

but for a csv it should save it in ubot properly.

[JohnB 255]

Yeah...it's an excel formatting issue...As Justin suggested, you really don't need to use Excel to accomplish what you want to do. (a csv file IS a text file and can be viewed as such)

 

John

[dmbfan 9]

Thanks, I've set up the bot so that it saves the file as both a .csv and as a.txt for the client. The data in the .txt file looks correct and it is an excel/open office formatting issue.