Importing information with '>' symbol into powerpivot

[afguard17]

This is really puzzling me, I'm hoping someone can help.

I have two tables of data. Table 1 has category codes and names on them.

Field Examples:

Cat = >MA
Description = MA Tax Calculation

Table 2 has invoice details including a field with category codes (Cat). However, when Table 2 is imported into powerpivot (excel data import) the records with >MA as a category are missing data in the Cat field. In other words, the entire record imports without issue, except in the Cat field, it is empty.

When I imported Table 1, the Cat field with >MA came in without any issues. The data structure is identical (both are stored as 'general' in excel and are represented like this: ^>MA when you select the cell)

Anyone have any ideas? I could remove the > signs as a last resort but would prefer to leave the data as 'raw' as possible and prevent additional steps.

Thank you!

- Colin

 

[MD610]

Are the excel files created by hand by someone or the result of some export from a database?

My first step in that situation would be to format the fields as TEXT in Excel before attempting the import. If that didn't work I would probably try using the TRIM function in Excel before the import to remove any possible hidden characters/spaces that could be causing issues.