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Author Topic: Editing .csv files  (Read 4995 times)

TrashMan

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Editing .csv files
« on: December 21, 2018, 12:01:46 PM »

What are you guys using?

I was first using Notepad++, but despite it being a great program, it's nto suited fopr .csv.

Then I started using Excell, which does the Import bit great ... but it sucks at exporting, since it doesn't give me any option to set same formating (can't select semicolon as delimiter, nor " to encapsulate blocks of data), so I have to do a lot of hand fixing.
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Wyvern

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2018, 12:09:39 PM »

I suggest OpenOffice.
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Vayra

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2018, 12:34:54 PM »

Excel works great -- don't import/export, just open and save  ???
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TrashMan

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2018, 01:10:29 PM »

Excel works great -- don't import/export, just open and save  ???

When I open a normal .csv from starsector in Noepad or Notepad++, the values are separated by commas and there are " to group tags.

A .csv file made with excel has ; as a separator and has no quotation marks to group tags.
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Serenitis

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2018, 02:31:21 PM »

Excel does not have a menu command to automatically export data to a text file so that the text file contains both quotation marks and commas as delimiters.
It can have that ability added to it, but it requires some Visual Basic trickery.

tl;dr - Notepad is better than Excel for working with csv
I suggest OpenOffice.
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Vayra

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2018, 04:59:16 PM »

Something is wrong with y'alls Excel installations, mine works perfectly, heh.

That said, Ron's CSV Editor is probably the best free option if you're okay with having a tool specifically for csvs: https://www.ronsplace.eu/products/ronseditor
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Harmful Mechanic

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2018, 06:56:41 PM »

On a Mac; my tool of choice is CSVEdit, which is lightweight and handles everything Starsector throws at it like a champ so far.
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TrashMan

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2018, 05:11:55 AM »

On a Mac; my tool of choice is CSVEdit, which is lightweight and handles everything Starsector throws at it like a champ so far.

I'm on Winblows.


My problems could be because I'm using Office 2007... perhaps I should upgrade?

EDIT: Nevermind - Notepad++ is perfect, I found how to organize and edit cleanly:

https://www.cathrinewilhelmsen.net/2014/10/15/edit-columns-in-notepad-with-textfx-plugin/


EDIT2: nevermind again, this also messes the formating up something fierce!
« Last Edit: December 22, 2018, 02:51:59 PM by TrashMan »
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nomadic_leader

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2018, 06:15:52 AM »

Just for the record, old versions of excel also screw things up on OSX.

For free text editors, there's Atom, and on the Mac BBedit.  If anyone use the Eclipse IDE, there's also a CSV editor plugin you can get for that

Probably though, the OpenOffice is the best free one since being able to filter/sort and do other spreadsheet stuff can be pretty useful if you have a big file.
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Ogaburan

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Re: Editing .csv files
« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2018, 09:23:42 AM »

I use... exel... TWICE!

One i use as a "visual" exel, where i mess about with the size of the rows and columns and add annotations.
Then i copy paste the relevant segment into the actual .csv, that i also open via exel.

For me it works like a charm, remembering ALT+Enter lowers a line on the same cell helped allot.
Crappy Example:
Spoiler
[close]
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