On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 14:44:01 -0800, klafert
wrote:

I have a spreadsheet and in one column I have numbers like below:


5/14/08 5280-3-01 Test
5/14/08 5280-3-01 Test
5/14/08 5280-3-01 Test
5/14/08 1030-0-01 Test
5/14/08 2101-0-01 Test
5/14/08 1030-0-01 Test
5/14/08 2101-0-01 Test

I have formated the 2ND column in Text, Number, every type of format. I
even tried re-typing the number manually, and copy and pasted everything in
a new spreadsheet and re-typed the number again. But when I save this
spreadsheet to .csv the 5280-3-01 turns into a date. I even manually
formatted and re-typed the number in the .csv file. I don't have to open the
file after I save it in a .csv because I am importing it into another
program. However, when I tried to import the file it bombs on this column,
yet the rest of the numbers in the same format will go import. I have already
done this before with the same number. However all the other numbers in
column 2 starting with the 4th line comes out fine. I formatted the whole
column the same.


The first 3 lines were the number is 5280-3-01 - I



You may be mistaken.

Unless there is something else going on, when you SAVE the spreadsheet to .csv
the 5280-3-01 does NOT turn into a date. Rather, it turns into a date when you
OPEN the previously saved .csv file.

Have you tried opening the .csv file using NOTEPAD? If you do, you may find
that the data is saved properly.

If you want to open the .csv file in Excel, and NOT have the 2nd column turn
into dates, you will have to change the suffix to .txt. You will then get the
text import wizard when you try to open the file, and can specify column 2 as
being text, and not a date.

If you are having a problem with the other program into which you are importing
this data, it may be that there is something other problem.

When I take your data, and save it as a .csv file; then open that file in
notepad, I get:

5/14/2008,5280-3-01,Test
5/14/2008,5280-3-01,Test
5/14/2008,5280-3-01,Test
5/14/2008,1030-0-01,Test
5/14/2008,2101-0-01,Test
5/14/2008,1030-0-01,Test
5/14/2008,2101-0-01,Test





--ron