[Solved] Open .csv file from schwab

[virtualb77]

I down loaded a .csv file from Schwab on line brokage of my stock positions and history.. they only allow one option of file type. .cvs.. however when i open it in open office the file is just a bunch of junk.. i called Schwab and they have not had any problems. I felt like an idiot. they suggested i try Microsoft excel. so i tried a trial copy and it worked perfectly.. all my info was laid out as expected.. but when i open that same .csv file in open office, it still junk. the tech support guys at Schwab think I am one in a million. I agree. I am always on the falling edge of something. anyhow, someone give me some suggestions...

------ i have just uploaded this .csv file. when i open it in openoffice, all i get is junk... when i open it in excel it works great. any help would be appreciated..

When I do the insert suggestion, all of the dollar and numeric fields show up as alpha fields and left justified... this is just crazy. again, when I open this .csv in excel all the fields are properly displayed...

[FJCC]

This sounds like an encoding problem. Open a blank spreadsheet and select the menu Insert -> Sheet From File. After you choose your csv as the source of the data, you will get a dialog for setting import parameters. At the top there is a selection for Character Set. Try different values of that. My first guess would be Western Europe (ASCII/US). The dialog has a preview pane, so you can see the result of your choice immediately.

[robleyd]

openoffice 2.4

If that is the version of AOO you are using,perhaps you should consider upgrading? If not, perhaps you might think about updating your signature - How to update your signature


If FJCC's advice doesn't help you, perhaps you could upload a sample cvs file for others to look at. [Forum] How to attach a document here Note maximum file size is 128K. If your file is larger, use a file sharing site such as Mediafire. The link also contains information on how to anonymise your document if it contains confidential information.

[Villeroy]

I think, virtualb77 should not use OpenOffice with csv files. His other topic of March 17: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=87740

If "everybody" is supposed to open text tables with Excel and Excel is an ubiquitous software product, why don't they offer Excel documents to download? Why using csv anyway?

[virtualb77]

This sounds like an encoding problem. Open a blank spreadsheet and select the menu Insert -> Sheet From File. After you choose your csv as the source of the data, you will get a dialog for setting import parameters. At the top there is a selection for Character Set. Try different values of that. My first guess would be Western Europe (ASCII/US). The dialog has a preview pane, so you can see the result of your choice immediately.

--------------------------------------------- i am on open office 4.1.5

[FJCC]

I just opened your document using the import settings as shown in the attached image. It looks fine to me.
Notice the character set is Western Europe (ASCII/US) and that Detect Special Numbers is checked.

[Villeroy]

https://support.office.com/en-us/articl ... n-US&ad=US (almost the same as OpenOffice)

Step 1 of 3

Original data type If items in the text file are separated by tabs, colons, semicolons, spaces, or other characters, select Delimited. If all of the items in each column are the same length, select Fixed width.

Start import at row Type or select a row number to specify the first row of the data that you want to import.

Same in the import dialog of OpenOffice

File origin Select the character set that is used in the text file. In most cases, you can leave this setting at its default. If you know that the text file was created by using a different character set than the character set that you are using on your computer, you should change this setting to match that character set. For example, if your computer is set to use character set 1251 (Cyrillic, Windows), but you know that the file was produced by using character set 1252 (Western European, Windows), you should set File Origin to 1252.

Preview of file This box displays the text as it will appear when it is separated into columns on the worksheet.

1) Translate "File origin" to "Character encoding". Try the character encodings until you see clear data in the preview.
2) Language: Choose the right import language. I guess the file is US American style with point decimals and a strange date notation like 12/31/2017. Choose English(USA).
3) Choose the right column delimiter(s) and if all the text columns are enclosed in "double quotes", choose " as text delimiter.
4) Always check "Detect special numbers".