How import text (csv) data into Libre Office Calc without auto-conversion to numbers

Question

when importing csv data, i have a column where most of the text strings are all numerals, but many also have letters. Calc will invariably strip leading zeros from a string that is all numerals, and will also interpret a string with an 'E' as scientific notation.

There is a 'detect special numbers' checkbox in the import dialog, and an 'auto input' checkbox under the tools menu. Neither of these affect the behavior.

data file:

99762 0099762 9834G7 9834E7

expected is same text.

actual is:

99762 99762 9834G7 98340000000

Libre Office version 6.0.7.3, buildid 1:6.0.7-0ubuntu0.18.04.8

Henry · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-07 17:01:18Z

2

in the import dialog, i can select a column and specify it should be imported as text. that works fine.

:-)

answered Aug 7, 2019 at 17:01

Henry

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1 Comment

J Collins Over a year ago

This is an unexpected thing to have to but god this is helpful. One thing I noticed though is that a fixed width import can have at minimum two columns

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