[Solved] Saving as CSV (MS-DOS)

[jamez654]

Hello,

I have piece of software which I import data to as .csv files. However it does not recognise .csv files which I have created with OpenOffice Calc. When I have spoken to the support people they advised me that the software only recognises .csv files created in Excel and saved as .csv CSV (MS-DOS). There only appears to be one option for saving as .csv in OpenOffice Calc whereas in Excel there are three.

Is there a workaround or a way to convert the .csv file? When I look at the created files in notepad they look identical whether they are created in Excel or OpenOffice Calc.

Regards,

James

[Villeroy]

Are you aware that csv is just plain text?

[jamez654]

Yes. Could the difference be to do with the character set?

[kingfisher]

It's a mystery to me but there is evidently some difference. One page I turned up contains the following statements:

CSV (comma delimited) .csv Saves a workbook as a comma-delimited text file for use on another Windows operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet.
....
CSV (MS-DOS) .csv Saves a workbook as a comma-delimited text file for use on the MS-DOS operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet.

Perhaps using a text editor to create the .csv would make the document acceptable to the other software.

I have looked at Google Drive, zamzar and another on line document conversion tool. Only zamzar will convert to .csv and it only lists one .csv format.

[acknak]

The fastest way to get something that works is to look at an actual file. If you have a sample file that you know will work, then I expect that we can find the options you need to use to get something out of OOo Calc that will also work. Otherwise, we'll still be here a week from now trying to find out what to do.

If you have a sample file we can look at, put it into a zip archive and attach the zip to a post here. Don't copy/paste text or attach the csv file itself; attaching a zip that contains the file will preserve the file against unwanted changes along the way.

[Villeroy]

Yes. Could the difference be to do with the character set?

You could compare both files and find out.
This is an editor for csv: http://csved.sjfrancke.nl/ This tiny program can do more with your text tables than this huge office suite (not counting the database component nobody ever uses).

[jamez654]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions. Attached are example files. It seems that Calc likes to insert " characters in the header row. I managed to get it to work by deleting the " from the text delimiter field in the export dialog.

James

[acknak]

Here's a couple you can try.

The file Calc_export_crlf.csv, is bit-for-bit identical to your file Mastitis_Excel.csv, so that one will certainly work.

The other file I exported from Calc, Calc_export.csv, as exported from Calc, has different line endings (LF) where your excel file has DOS line endings (CRLF). It may still work, or if you export the data from Calc running under Windows, you should get the DOS line ends.

Edit: PS:

Oops, here's how I created the csv file:
Data imported from Mastitis_Excel.csv; changed dates to use custom format DD/MM/YYYY to match what's in the csv file.
File > Save As
Field delimiter: , comma
Text delimiter: none
Content as shown: YES (checked)
Character set: UTF/8 (this setting should not matter unless you're using accented characters or symbols of some kind.