Submitted by admin on
I you are having errors when converting your CSV file, it might be because the columns are not being recognized.
CSV Converter supports a wide range of CSV formats, but sometimes, it's difficult to figure out the structure.
Each operating system has its own encoding, the most common is UTF-8. Linux writes files in a different way that Mac OS or Linux do. Each provider will have a different field delimiter, like commas or semicolons.
The example below uses semicolons:
01 Jan 2015; Supermarket; -100,00
Each country has it's own character set with specific characters that are used only on that country. The decimal points and date format will also vary depending on the country.
The example below uses the date format YY/MM/DD, comma as field delimiter and dot as decimal point.
2015/07/31, Supermarket, -100.00
They will have different enclosures, for example: double quotes, or no enclosure at all. The line endings will also vary depending on the operation system.
One handy way of fixing this problem is by opening the CSV file in Excel and re-saving the file, while choosing the field delimiter and text delimiter. Requires Excel or Open Office (Free).
Step by step:
- Open the file manager and double click the CSV file, or right click and Open in Excel. On this example I am using Open Office on Mac OSX. The options on Windows might be a little different but the principle is the same.
- The first screen will ask how you want Excel to recognize the field delimiters and text delimiter. You can select one or more, as soon as you click on the options, you will see the effect below.
- Click on the File menu and Save As. Excel will ask you where to save the file. You can either override the same file or save with a different name.
- You should tick the option 'Edit filter settings'.
- When the prompt for field delimiter shows, choose semicolon (;). For text delimiter choose double quotes ("). I also tick the box to Quote all text cells.
Done, now try to import the re-saved file.