When I download a CSV file, one of the columns has a ’ at the start, preventing me from doing a sum total. How can I fix this problem, sample of what I am talking about.CSV Issue.ods
Thanks ahead for any suggestions or help.
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Hello,
the ' character is an indicator, that your data most likely are numbers and easily can be converted into a number by Data -> Text to Column -> Button: OK (no other settings / adaptions required).
PS If I do open your file I see the data as numbers and there is no ' character.
Hope that helps.
solved: So simple, thank you so much for your quick response. Be Safe.
@anon73440385, I changed to German locale settings, and yes, there is no apostrophe before the numbers. It seems a bit strange to me.
I changed to German locale settings, and yes, there is no apostrophe before the numbers. It seems a bit strange to me
That is normal. The ' before the text in the cell indicates that the cell contains a text that was explicitly marked as text, but which would otherwise (if not explicitly marked as text) be converted into some number (currency, date, time, percent…). That is obviously locale-dependent: e.g., for en-US, a text like “1.23” would be converted into the corresponding number if entered into a cell by default; but the same in German locale would not, since that locale uses , as decimal separator. Thus, if a cell has 1.23 text, in English locale that would require ' to indicate that this is text convertible to number; while it is not a text convertible to number in German locale.
The question is, why for @anon73440385
I see the data as numbers and there is no ’ character.
No - it is not strange. The German local doesn’t even recognize that the text could be numbers and imports the text as text, while an English locale has a notion of what $100,00 could mean and indicates that the text in the file probably are numbers and indicates that using the ' character.
Stored is text (investigating `content.xml`):
<table:table-cell office:value-type="string" calcext:value-type="string">
<text:p>$175.00</text:p>
</table:table-cell>
@mikekaganski - you are right and I wrote nonsense; of course I don’t see 'em as numbers but pure text, which requires Text to Column to tell that the values are of type US-English (only the second part of my PS is correct).