Recover zeros stripped from number fields

[NginUS]

I’ve got a vCard address book exported as a csv which I’m doing bulk edits on in Calc. Unfortunately some phone numbers, particularly having to do with SMS messaging, have had their leading zeroes stripped because the field they’re in is formatted as a number. The zip code fields are broken too, but they’re easily spotted for manual repair.

My problem is that I’m unable to know if the numbers displayed are accurately represented or if their leading zero has been stripped. I found that I can’t simply reformat those cells as text & have the missing zero reappear. But that’s basically what I need to happen.

Is there any other way to sort this?

Thanks in advance.

[Lupp]

If the zeroes already are missing in the exported file there is no remedy, of course.
If the csv contains the zeroes you simply need to set the respective columns to ‘Text’ during import.
You get the window titled Text - Import - [pathnameofthefile.csv] on import. There you find a preview of some rows (records) split in columns. If the split is correct, find the columns containing “fake numbers” that actually need be treated as text. Rightclick the respective column labels and choose Text from the list of types.

[NginUS]

Now that you mention it, I remember seeing that window pop up when I opened it. Being that I’ve already worked on editing a significant portion of it, I’ll have to see about fixing up a newly-exported copy such that the rows match up so I can copy the numbers that start with zero. Thanks!

[Lupp]

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