Comma-separated values or “comma delimited files” (CSV) is a text file format that uses commas to separate values, and newlines or line breaks to separate records.
What delimiter Excel uses for CSV files
To handle .csv files, Microsoft Excel uses the List separator defined in Windows Regional settings.
In North America and some other countries, the default list separator is a comma (,) punctuation, so you get CSV comma delimited.
In European countries, a comma is reserved for the decimal symbol, and the list separator is generally set to semicolon (;) punctuation.
Save Excel File As CSV With Different Delimiter / Separator
When your save a workbook as a .csv file, Excel separates values with your default List separator. To force it to use a different delimiter, proceed with the following steps:
- Click File menu > Options button > Advanced.
- Under Editing options, clear the Use system separators check box.
- Change the default Decimal separator. As this will change the way decimal numbers are displayed in your worksheets, choose a different Thousands separator to avoid confusion.
Depending on which separator you wish to use, configure the settings in one of the following ways.
To save Excel file as CSV comma delimited, set the decimal separator to a period (dot). This will make Excel use a comma for the List separator (CSV delimiter):
- Set Decimal separator to period (.)
- Set Thousands separator to comma (,)
To save Excel file as CSV semicolon delimited, set the decimal separator to a comma. This will make Excel use a semicolon for the List separator (CSV delimiter):
- Set Decimal separator to comma (,)
- Set Thousands separator to period (.)
If you want to change a CSV separator only for a specific file, then tick the Use system settings check box again after exporting your Excel workbook to CSV.
A CSV file structured
For Microsoft Excel program to be able to read a CSV file with a field separator used in a given CSV file, you can specify the separator directly in that file. For this, open your file in any text editor, e.g. Notepad, and type the below (common separator) string before any other data:
- To separate values with comma: sep=,
- To separate values with semicolon: sep=;
- To separate values with a pipe: sep=|
In the CSV file format, a field separator are used to separate the values in different cells in a spreadsheet data format.
For example,
- In the dataset "10001,Small Golden Bead Bars,$18.95", the semicolon (,) separates the three data items 10001, Small Golden Bead Bars, and $18.95.
- In the dataset "10001;Small Golden Bead Bars;$18.95", the semicolon (;) separates the three data items 10001, Small Golden Bead Bars, and $18.95.
- In the dataset “10001|Small Golden Bead Bars|$18.95” the pipes (|) separates the three data items 10001, Small Golden Bead Bars, and $18.95.
CSV files often contain a header row at the top which specifies the titles of each column in the file.
sep=,
Order no.,Item,Price
10001,Small Golden Bead Bars,$18.95
10002,Geometric Demonstration Tray,$39.95
10003,Color Tablets,$69.95
CSV files end with the extension “.csv”, and the simple structure of CSV data makes it an efficient format for storing and transferring data between different applications.
CSV files end with the extension “.csv”, and the simple structure of CSV data makes it an efficient format for storing and transferring data between different applications.
Understanding how to use delimiters seems fairly straightforward, but once you’re working with actual datasets, problems arise quickly. For example, how do you handle a comma in a value where commas are also being used as the delimiter for the file? One option would be to surround that value in double quotes, but what if the quote character is also being used inside that value? How about the situation where a newline is used to separate each record, but it’s also present inside of an entry?
Properly handling these complications are often dependent on the platform, so depending on where the CSV data was exported from, a different set of rules in order needs to be applied to properly interpret the dataset.
Notes
- Remember, if you change CSV delimiter or separator with different delimiter / separator, it will be impact to Microsoft Excel number format ( Decimal separator and Thousands separator ).
- Obviously, the changes you've made in Excel Options are limited to Excel. Other applications will keep using the default List separator defined in your Windows Regional settings.
Bibliography
https://www.ablebits.com/
https://www.oneschema.co/
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