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(Solved) - Need a little help with Comma Separated Value files ...

(6 posts)
  • Started 7 months ago by SarahJames
  • Latest reply from dprice
  • Topic Viewed 403 times

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SarahJames
SarahJames
Posts: 6581

Hi guys and gals,

Lately I've gotten a list of csv files, but when I open them things are barely readable.
All the columns are very small, but there is a lot of text in them, so I have to manually drag them wider, but then there isn't enough space on my screen.
So I wondered if there are any other csv readers out there that make this easier or if there is something I can do in Excel to make this manageble.
There are hundreds of entries in these files, so manually doing this is not an option :(
(I suspect they have been created in a different program but I don't know which one ...)

Posted 7 months ago #
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moreeg
moreeg
Posts: 842

Hi Sarah

They sound like very strange sort of files. Are they multiply rows as well as columns? How are they meant to be read e.g. A1 then B1 and then A2 and B2? or A1,A2,B1,B2?

I suspect you're right that Excel is not the best medium for reading the files (from your description I can't imagine what would be) but if there is some logic in the way they are organised it might be possible to apply some formulae that will make it easier to read or to extract to Word or notepad.

In the meantime here are some "tricks" you may or may not know.

You can resize multiple columns at the same time by highlighting several complete columns and resizing one of them will resize all the highlighted columns to the same width.

Once you've done that - and while the columns are still highlighted - right click in one of the highlighted columns and select Format/Alignment and click on Wrap Text. This will increase the row size to accommodate the longest text in a given column.

See how this might help but if it is still too hard to read it might be best to look into some formula or VBA to solve the problem.

Posted 7 months ago #
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SarahJames
SarahJames
Posts: 6581

Hi Moree,

Because of privacy issues I can't post a screenshot, but I've been googling a bit and have found Csved.
It's not perfect yet, but so much better. Still lots of ; and ;P in the text, but at least everything fits on my screen now and all the text is visible or I can scroll down ;)
It's all pedigree data with old owner and new owner, breeder etc.
For some reason sometimes the old owner and new owner are both in the 'old owner' column and sometimes the new owner is neatly placed in the column 'new owner' and the breeder is placed randomly in either column and only because I knw the addresses of the breeders I can make out which address goes with which person.
But at least I can now see the complete address and the complete name and the dogs complete name etc. which speads up reading these files 200% <LOL>.

I've also emailed the association that sends me these files, hoping they can tell me what program is best to use.

But for now I'll mark this solved, since I can at least get on with it :)

Posted 7 months ago #
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vistamike
vistamike
Posts: 10945

Sarah thanks for that good find, it sorts my CSVs from banks / Paypal et al , had same problems

Posted 7 months ago #
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SarahJames
SarahJames
Posts: 6581

Ha that's great!

Posted 7 months ago #
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dprice
Posts: 1

CVS files are normally associated with Database records. CSV stands for Comma Separated Values (the Database Records)
Take a look at the file content. The first line may give you an idea of the file type as it usually contains the field hesdings of the database. If this is the xase then create a datbase with the same headings (ACCESS) and mport the file-see what happens. I have used them extensively to import records into Page Make-up programs. The CSV files would have been supplied by the client.

Posted 7 months ago #
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