Though I try to avoid it, I occasionally have to open a CSV file in Excel. When I do, it formats columns containing numbers, which makes them useless for my purposes. As far as I can tell, the only way to prevent this from happening on import is to rename the file so the extension isn't .csv and use the import wizard to specify the format of each column individually. For files with 50-60 columns, this is impractical.

Since every answer for this oft-asked question on the internet suggests either some means of converting the formatted numbers back once the file is open (which won't work for me - I want to solve the general problem, not a few specific cases) or manually selecting the format type of each column (which I don't want to do), I'm looking for a way to set a global preference or style such that all columns of all CSV files opened are always formatted as text. I know about "armoring" the numbers with quotes, too, but the files I get don't come like that and I was hoping to avoid having to pre-process the files so Excel doesn't screw them up.

Is there a way to do specifically this: Always format all columns in opened CSV files as text, without manually selecting each column every time during import?

I'm using Excel 2003, but I'll take answers for 2007 if that's what you know.

1

10 Answers

This works:

Sub OpenCsvAsText(ByVal strFilepath As String) Dim intFileNo As Integer Dim iCol As Long Dim nCol As Long Dim strLine As String Dim varColumnFormat As Variant Dim varTemp As Variant '// Read first line of file to figure out how many columns there are intFileNo = FreeFile() Open strFilepath For Input As #intFileNo Line Input #intFileNo, strLine Close #intFileNo varTemp = Split(strLine, ",") nCol = UBound(varTemp) + 1 '// Prepare description of column format ReDim varColumnFormat(0 To nCol - 1) For iCol = 1 To nCol varColumnFormat(iCol - 1) = Array(iCol, xlTextFormat) ' What's this? See VBA help for OpenText method (FieldInfo argument). Next iCol '// Open the file using the specified column formats Workbooks.OpenText _ Filename:=strFilepath, _ DataType:=xlDelimited, _ ConsecutiveDelimiter:=False, Comma:=True, _ FieldInfo:=varColumnFormat
End Sub

Usage:

OpenCsvAsText "C:\MyDir\MyFile.txt"

Comma-separated file is now open as Excel sheet with all columns formatted as text.

Note that @Wetmelon's wizard solution works just fine, but if you're opening many files then you may, like me, grow weary of, each time, scrolling to column 60 in order to Shift-Click it.

EDIT @GSerg states in the comment below that this "doesn't work" and "eats spaces and leading zeroes". I'll just quote the comment to the question, which is more descriptive:

For reasons unknown, even if you explicitly provide formats for all columns in VBA, Excel will ignore it if the file extension is CSV. As soon as you change the extension, that same code will yield the correct results.

So the code above "works", but gets killed by this ridiculous Excel behaviour. Whichever way you cut it, you're stuck having to change the extension to something other than ".csv", sorry! After that, you're home free.

3

How to open CSVs in Excel

Good way

• Excel → Data → Get external data → Select all columns with Shift and choose Text

  Upside: Treats all values correctly as text without any exception

  Downside: More steps than a simple Double-click

Bad way

• Open a CSV with Double Click or Excel's Open with dialog

  Downside: Excel's internal CSV handler misinterprets values with a leading - or = sign as a formula rather than text

  Downside: You will lose leading zeros from binary values like 0001 due to Excel's auto detected column format

Good way (for VBA)

• Use QueryTables (the VBA counterpart to Get external data) → Example code

  Upside: Treats all values correctly as text without any exception

  Downside: Slightly more code than OpenText method

Bad way (for VBA)

• Use Workbooks.OpenText method → Example code

  Downside: This method is still using Excel's internal CSV import handler with all its flaws

  Downside: Additionally, the fieldinfo parameter of OpenText is ignored if the extension is CSV. Normally, this parameter lets you choose every column format, But not if the extension is CSV. You can read more about this behavior on Stack Overflow

  ^{Temporarily renaming the source extension from CSV to TXT and then back to CSV is a valid workaround if you have full control over the source file}

Additional methods

• If you have access to the source which creates your CSV, you can alter the CSV syntax.
  Enclose every value with double quotation marks and prefix an equal sign like ="00001" or prepend a tab to every value. Both ways will force Excel to treat the value as text

  _{Original CSV content}
  

  _{CSV in Excel when opened via double click}
  

  Note how line 2 (double quote method) and line 3 (tab method) are not changed by Excel

• Open CSV in Notepad and copy&paste all values to Excel. Then use Data - Text to Columns
  Downside: Text in Columns for changing column formats from general back to text produces inconsistent results. If a value contains a - surrounded by characters (e.g. "=E1-S1"), Excel tries to split that value up into more than one column. Values located right to that cell may get overwritten
  ^{(The behavior of Text to columns was changed somewhere between Excel 2007 and 2013 so it doesn't work anymore)}

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Excel Add-In to open CSVs and import all values as text

This is an Excel Plug-in to simplify CSV Import actions.
The main advantage: It's a one-click solution and uses QueryTables, the same bulletproof method behind Get external data

• It adds a new menu command to Excel which lets you import CSV and TXT files. All values are imported to the active sheet starting at the currently selected cell
• Excel Add-in are available for all Office versions on Windows and Mac
• The whole Add-In has only 35 lines of code. Check the commented source code if you are curious
• The used CSV list separator (comma or semicolon) is taken from your local Excel settings
• Encoding is set to UTF-8

Installation

1. Download the Add-In and save it to your Add-Ins folder: %appdata%\Microsoft\AddIns
2. Open Excel and activate the Add-In: File tab → Options → Add-Ins → Go To and select ImportCSV.xla
3. Enable VBA macros: File tab → Options → Trust Center → Trust Center Settings → Macro Settings → Enable all macros
4. Restart Excel

You'll notice a new menu bar entry called Add-Ins and you use this button to quickly open your CSV files without going through the hassle of the Import dialog

---

PowerShell script to open CSVs directly from Windows Explorer

You can use a PowerShell script to open CSV files and automatically pass them to Excel. The script silently uses Excel's text import method which treats values always as text and, as a bonus, handles UTF-8 encoding

1. Create a new text file and paste the below script. A commented version can be found here

$CSVs = @()
$args.ForEach({ If ((Test-Path $_) -and ($_ -Match "\.csv$|\.txt$")) { $CSVs += ,$_ }
})
if (-Not $null -eq $CSVs) { $excel = New-Object -ComObject excel.application $excel.visible = $true $excel.SheetsInNewWorkbook = $CSVs.Count $workbook = $excel.Workbooks.Add() for ($i=0; $i -lt $CSVs.Count; $i++){ $csv = Get-Item $CSVs[$i] $worksheet = $workbook.worksheets.Item($i + 1) $worksheet.Name = $csv.basename $TxtConnector = ("TEXT;" + $csv.fullname) $Connector = $worksheet.QueryTables.add($TxtConnector,$worksheet.Range("A1")) $query = $worksheet.QueryTables.item($Connector.name) $query.TextFilePlatform = 65001 $query.TextFileTextQualifier = 1 $query.TextFileOtherDelimiter = $Excel.Application.International(5) $query.TextFileParseType = 1 $arrFormats = ,2 * $worksheet.Cells.Columns.Count $query.TextFileColumnDataTypes = $arrFormats $query.AdjustColumnWidth = 1 $query.Refresh() $query.Delete() }
}

2. Save it somewhere like C:\my\folder\myScript.ps1. (Note the extension .ps1)
   • Open your sendto folder via WinR » shell:sendto » Enter
3. Create a new shortcut via Right click » New » Shortcut and paste this line. Don't forget to change the path to your own one where you've put your script. Name the shortcut, for example, Excel

"%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe " -NoProfile -NonInteractive -WindowStyle Hidden -File "C:\my\folder\myScript.ps1"

Now you can select (multiple) CSVs and open them in Excel via Right-click » SendTo » Excel

6

You can try by opening a .xlsx first, then creating a data connection and importing the .csv. Select "comma" delimited, then select the option to treat all columns as text rather than "General".

Edit: Oh, I didn't fully read the question. In import wizard, select the first column header that you want to import as text, scroll to the final column header, and Shift+Click the header. Then select the "Text" radial option.

1

Wetmelon's suggestion works (even with .CSV) if you do the following:

1. Open Excel to a blank workbook or worksheet
2. Click to Data > [Get External Data] From Text
3. Use the "Text Import Wizard" as Wetmelon describes (Comma delimted, select the first column, SHIFT+CLICK the last column, set everything to Text).

I know it is more steps, but at least it lets me open CSVs this way without having to change the extension

Watch Out!

When using manual method "Excel → Data → Get external data → Select all columns and choose Text"......

This will only set the columns to text "that have data in the first row" (typically a header row). This wizard does not show you the columns farther to the right that might have data further below but not in the first row. For example:

Row1Col1, Row1Col2, Row1Col3

Row2Col1, Row2Col2, Row2Col3, Row2Col4

You will never see Col 4 in the import wizard so you will not get the option to change it from general to text format before importing!!!!

1

Here is the alternative procedure to code posted above by Jean-François Corbett

This Procedure will import csv file into Excel with all columns formatted as Text

Public Sub ImportCSVAsText() Dim TempWorkbook As Workbook Dim TempWorksheet As Worksheet Dim ColumnCount As Integer Dim FileName As Variant Dim ColumnArray() As Integer 'Get the file name FileName = Application.GetOpenFilename(FileFilter:="All Files (*.*),*.*", FilterIndex:=1, Title:="Select the CSV file", MultiSelect:=False) If FileName = False Then Exit Sub Application.ScreenUpdating = False 'Open the file temporarily to get the count of columns Set TempWorkbook = Workbooks.Open(FileName) ColumnCount = TempWorkbook.Sheets(1).Range("A1").SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell).Column TempWorkbook.Close SaveChanges:=False 'Resize the array to number of columns ReDim ColumnArray(1 To ColumnCount) For i = 1 To ColumnCount ColumnArray(i) = xlTextFormat Next i Set TempWorkbook = Workbooks.Add Set TempWorksheet = TempWorkbook.Sheets(1) Application.DisplayAlerts = False TempWorkbook.Sheets(2).Delete TempWorkbook.Sheets(2).Delete Application.DisplayAlerts = True With TempWorksheet.QueryTables.Add("TEXT;" & FileName, TempWorksheet.Cells(1, 1)) .FieldNames = True .RowNumbers = False .FillAdjacentFormulas = False .PreserveFormatting = True .RefreshOnFileOpen = False .RefreshStyle = xlInsertDeleteCells .SavePassword = False .SaveData = True .AdjustColumnWidth = True .RefreshPeriod = 0 .TextFilePromptOnRefresh = False .TextFilePlatform = 1251 .TextFileStartRow = 1 .TextFileParseType = xlDelimited .TextFileTextQualifier = xlTextQualifierDoubleQuote .TextFileConsecutiveDelimiter = False .TextFileTabDelimiter = False .TextFileSemicolonDelimiter = False .TextFileCommaDelimiter = True .TextFileSpaceDelimiter = False .TextFileColumnDataTypes = ColumnArray .TextFileTrailingMinusNumbers = True .Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False End With
End Sub

1

If you are always importing the same data (constant record format, layout, etc...) you could write an Access macro using an import spec and then dump the data back out to Excel. Done this may times. The other way that I have done it is to use VBA and read the data into the worksheet one record at a time and parse it out as it reads. As far as I know there is no way to set a default format during import in Excel and even if you could it would cause problems with the next file type you try to parse.

1

As request, submitting my comment as an answer (with a little more info added):

Hey Scripting Guy did a blog article about Importing CSV into Excel that might have some useful tidbits for you. Playing with the data object inside powershell may allow you to do what you want.

Although the article specifically just mentions importing the data into the cells which may leave the number format, it may be possible to play around with some of the Excel ComObject properties and methods to force the data to enter the cells as raw text instead (or force the formatting of the cells into text before or after the import).

For reasons unknown, even if you explicitly provide formats for all columns, Excel will ignore it if the file extension is CSV.

Some options:

• Create a query to import the data, as Wetmelon suggests.
  Disadvantage: you may be missing CSV database drivers on a 64-bit machine.

• Use Jean's code, but incorporate copying the file to a temporary folder and changing the copy's extension.
  Disadvantage: No link to the original file (saving will overwrite the copy); you will have to manually delete the copy afterwards. Still, you can manually Save As over the original CSV.

• Open the CSV in Notepad, Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, paste to Excel, then Data - Text to Columns, then it's the usual wizard where you can set all columns to Text in one go. It's a different flavour of the previous option, because it also hides the precious extension from Excel.
  Disadvantage: manual.

• Have a very simple VBA loop that reads the whole file into memory and puts it onto the sheet, cell by cell.
  Disadvantage: slower, ugly.

2

If I understand the question correctly, this is easily solved using the Transpose option in Paste-Special as described here.