Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 13156
Autocorrect issues when importing a file
Last modified: 2003-09-08 16:55:29 UTC
I have a CSV txt file with numbers in scientific format. If I import this file in OOo (Open File, specifying Text CSV type) I get the Text Import dialog. In this dialog, I cannot specify a column type in the selection box, but the preview looks like what I want (!) However, when the file is imported, many numbers are changed into date format, so that the data looks very different from the preview. Also, I use the English OOo build on an English version of Windows XP, but my location is the Netherlands, so apparently the "default language" of the cells is Dutch, and in the cells which have been imported as numbers, the decimal point is interpreted as a thousands separator (the convention in the Netherlands) instead as a decimal point. If I select the cells with dates in them and choose the US English number format, I get completely different values than in my original txt file. Suggestions: * No autoformatting/autocorrection should be performed when importing a file. * At the very least, the imported data should correspond to the preview in the "import" dialog box. If necessary, add options to control the format of the imported data
Created attachment 5524 [details] CSV .txt file
Hi Simon, just click into the displayed column. As you've done this, you can choose US-English as column type. The complete different numbers are located in the decimal value of the dates, so reformatting them just show the this value and therefore this is not a bug. Your suggestion about the preview is not possible, as the preview is just plain text and the resulting import is interpreted depending on your settings made in the dialog. So I've to close this as Invalid Best regards Frank
closed invalid
If no "auto formatting", better "interpreting", would be performed, you are only able to import text. Remeber - you have a text file. So Calc HAS to interpret the texts and to calculate reasonable values. How Calc does this, can be set in the dialog. The dialog itself is more a file viewer than a preview. It always shows the real contents of the text file. It cannot show how Calc interprets the text.
I have looked at your file, and tried it to import using "US-English", and it shows the correct values here. You may need to adjust the displayed precision. You can do this in the cell format dialog, tabpage Numbers.
Hi Frank, Daniel, Thanks for the explanation. It had not occurred to me that I could click on the preview, therefore the column type selection box did not offer any choices. Sorry for the inconvenience!
DR->FST: Would it be better to pre-select the first column? Would save one required click in all cases where only one column of data is present. And in other cases, you have to click at a column anyway.
Hi Daniel, no it should be as it is. Frank