Weird Characters in Imported CSV files

[cmccall95]

I received a large amount of .CSV files from a client, and these files came from all over the world. Some of them are showing odd characters throughout the file when importing. I asked the origin of the particular files and was told the original languages were English and Spanish. I notice there are many that are Russian Language entries as well. I'm not sure the correct way to get the data to display correctly. To combat the Spanish to English problem, I have added the Spanish Language packs and also tried importing the CSV as "65001 : Unicode (UTF-8)". This changed the characters but did not make them correct.

Is there maybe a VBA code out there that can loop and convert these to whatever they are supposed to be? Or maybe remove them entirely? My next idea is loading the CSV files with a Python script and see if that is any different. I'm not sure if this is an issue with the import or possible the CSV file. When I open the original file in Wordpad, I see the same characters. Any advice is appreciated.

Examples:
-López
-Escuela República de Argentina
-Escuela de Música Salta
-ÆÑâ
-°4001
-ÞôõÑÂьúð ×ÞÃÂ

 

[cmccall95]

You are right, you need to determine how these strange characters find there way into the file.
In my case, some email packet modified the string.

They are working on that now. Hopefully, they can figure something out.

 

[cmccall95]

Yes if the coding characters can be known - easy just asking the creator of the source csv text files ! -​

some ways exist directly under VBA / Windows as you can find on Net, in fact whatever the coding language …​

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For further help I need you link a source csv text file in a files host website like Dropbox for example.​

Unfortunately, I am very limited on what I can do. I can't sure the information due to the NDA with the organization. They aren't sure where the files came from and are looking into it now.

 

[Marc L]

​

Try to open a source csv text file with Notepad++ …​

 

[cmccall95]

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Try to open a source csv text file with Notepad++ …​

I did and still am seeing the came characters. That's what leads me to believe it's a problem with the source file

 

[Marc L]

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Really under Notepad++ ? As it is very not Notepad neither WordPad …​

 

[cmccall95]

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Really under Notepad++ ? As it is very not Notepad neither WordPad …​

Yes, even with Notepad ++. I have tried Notepad, Notepad++, and Wordpad.

 

[cmccall95]

**Copied directly from Notepad++**
,Ірина,УÑатова,,,"ОдеÑька ЗОШ