Importing Data Error #NAME?

[purceld2]

Hi

I have imported a CSV into spreadsheet and get a funny error in on of the coulums

It appears the Excel does not like the data being import into this colum

Data

- Help Them Please.mp3

Excel changes the cell

=- Help Them Please.mp3

And the Cell displays #NAME?

Any ideas why this is?

Thanks in advance for your help

Desmond

 

[Joe4]

I think it sees the dash, and is trying to treat it as a mathematical formula (negative sign or minus sign).
You need to import that column as Text, and not General.

This is one issue with opening CSV files directly into Excel. It does not invoke the Import Wizard; it tries to "guess" the format of each column itself, and sometimes it guesses wrong.
If you change the way you import these files, you can invoke the Import Wizard and tell Excel that this is a Text column.

How you invoke the Import Wizard depends upon which version of Excel you are using. What version are you using?

 

[purceld2]

Thank you much appreciated

 

[purceld2]

Hi there,

just tried your suggestion still getting the same result

Regards

Desmond

 

[Joe4]

just tried your suggestion still getting the same result

I haven't given you a suggestion yet, I asked you a follow-up question.

How you invoke the Import Wizard depends upon which version of Excel you are using. What version are you using?

 

[purceld2]

I haven't given you a suggestion yet, I asked you a follow-up question.

So sorry i think the version I am using is 2013

 

[Joe4]

OK, check out the note in this link here, which tells you how to open it it force the Import Wizard: https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...sv-files-5250ac4c-663c-47ce-937b-339e391393ba

[FONT=&quot]Note:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] When Excel opens a .csv file, it uses the current default data format settings to interpret how to import each column of data. If you want more flexibility in converting columns to different data formats, you can use the Import Text Wizard. For example, the format of a data column in the .csv file may be MDY, but Excel's default data format is YMD, or you want to convert a column of numbers that contains leading zeros to text so you can preserve the leading zeros. To force Excel to run the Import Text Wizard, you can change the file name extension from .csv to .txt before you open it, or you can [/FONT]Import a text file by connecting to it[FONT=&quot].[/FONT]

Once you get the Import Wizard, when you get to step 3, select this field that is causing issues, and select the "Text" option for that field (instead of "General"), and then click Finish.

 

[purceld2]

Hi Joe,

imported data as directed, same result.

From my observations it appear that when Excel is importing the data for some reason it is adding a "=" to the beginning of the string when it comes across a string which begins with an "-"

As a work around I have for the time being manually removed the "=" excel has added at the beginning of the string. data now in the cell as it should.

thank again for all your help

Desmond

 

[Joe4]

OK.

Out of curiosity, were you able to get to the Import Wizard, and change the format of that field in step 3?

 

[purceld2]

OK.

Out of curiosity, were you able to get to the Import Wizard, and change the format of that field in step 3?

Yes