CSV Import and field sizes

[Goz]

OK, it's getting late and my head aches from banging it on the desk!

I'm creating a flat file import CSV through Excel 2003. It has extended text that reaches about 500 chars. However, Excel displays the contents of this cell as a sequence of about 500 "#" signs and, when saving as a CSV, the text is being created as about 500 "#" signs. Excel has a field display width limit of 255 chars but allows for 32k in each cell (I think).

Anyone any experience here before I take one headache table too many.

Thanks

Andy

[Jan]

I believe that you can only access the first 255 through linking. If you more than this you should link through MS Access instead.

Regards,

[Goz]

Thanks Jan.

You say only "the first 255 through linking" - I guess you meant to say "through importing"?

regards

Andy

[Jan]

Actually I meant linking - what I did do however was misread you question, sorry about that.

You can edit long text fields in Excel, I don't know why you are getting those '#' characters.

Regards,

[Goz]

I can't understand it either - even now I'm refreshed. I look at the cell and it is filled with "#"'s. I can click on it and the original contents are there and can be edited. I may have to think about linking it in to an external file, but there are about 200 products I currently want to to do this with.....

[jont]

You can sometimes get the #'s appearing if the actual cell width in excel is not wide enough - try stretching the column width handle - especially if the cell contents are there and editable ... worth a try.....

[Goz]

Thanks Jonty... I've done that. The column will only stretch to 255 characters. I've also formatted the cell to word wrap i.e. put the content on multiple lines. That didn't work either! Although, I didn't try that combination in reverse (word wrap and then resize the column - might be worth the effort!)

Oh the joys of Microsoft!

[wjcampbe]

Microsoft know about the problem and provide a solution for linked workbooks - may be the same will work if you open the database in access before opening the spreadsheet.

[ADDED] Found the solution for Access - see http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;208801
[/added]

[Goz]

Thanks Bill. Nearly but not quite. However, I'm still searching Microsoft...

I can edit the contents to 255 characters and it displays correctly. Getting closer!!

Andy

[wjcampbe]

Goz, you might have missed the second url I posted which has a multi cell and concatenation approach suggestion from M$.

[Goz]

OK, it's getting late and my head aches from banging it on the desk!


This time for a completely different reason. My professional reputation (I'm an IT consultant) is in tatters!!

Thank you to William for providing me with the answer - albeit indirectly. You were correct in that I overlooked your second link. Having read it, I decided to use the part to chop the description into pieces and then concatenate them. It worked an absolute treat and boy was I chuffed. So, thank you again. I then made the mistake of using Paste Format from the concatenation to the original description. I don't think you need me to go on! I played about with the formatting on the cell last night - but obviously not enough.


Sorry for having wasted people's time. Boy, this humble pie tastes good!

Thanks

Andy