At 09:45 PM 12/12/2003, R. Joseph Newton wrote: >Paul Kraus wrote: > >> Is there a way to write a CSV file so that excel wont drop the leading >> zero's from fields? I could use spreadsheet::writeexcel or OLE but >> that's like using a sledgehammer for something that needs to be hand >> tightened. >> >> Thanks. >> Paul > >Leading zeroes are meaningful only in strings. If you want leading zeroes >in your data, signify that the value is a string by quoting it. It will >totally make a hash of any numerical functions on the field, but if >leading zeroes are that important...
This doesn't work, Excel still strips the delimiters and displays the number as numeric >You could also think about the proper place to concern yourself with data, >and where to concern yourself with it's representation. A database table, >such as a CSV file, has one set of needs. A report has a comletely >different set. Don't wate energy trying to line things up verticall in >stored data. Just translate to your desired presentation format on >extraction. > >So why do you need leading zeroes? My case is patient medical record numbers, which are always 9 digits and may have a leading zero. I have had this problem a long time, I just format the cells after the conversion process. -Mark -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>
