Quoting J Dougherty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > On Monday 27 August 2007 22:21, David Scott wrote: >> On Tue, 28 Aug 2007, Robert A LaBudde wrote: >> > If you format the column as "Text", you won't have this problem. By >> > leaving the cells as "General", you leave it up to Excel to guess at >> > the correct interpretation. >> >> Not true actually. I had converted the column to Text because I saw the >> interpretation as a date in the .xls file. I saved the .csv file *after* >> the column had been converted to Text. Looking at the .csv file in a text >> editor, the entry is correct. >> >> I have just rechecked this. >> >> On reopening the .csv using Excel, the entry AUG2699 had been interpreted >> as a date, and was showing as Aug-99. Most bizarre is that the NHI value >> of AUG1838 has *not* been interpreted as a date. >> > Actually, in Excel 2000, he's right. What you have to is be sure of is that > the "'" that denotes a text entry precedes EVERY entry that can be confused > with a date. Selecting the entire column and setting the format to "text" > *before* data is entered does this. It will also create an > appropriate *.csv file.
Does this mean that Excel 2000 adds the apostrophe character? If so, that's not good. Yes, it can make teh right .CSV removing the apostrophe... but if you read the file again... you have teh issue coming back, because it does it automatically on opening the file, doesn't it? > Excel is notable too because it will automatically convert "date-like" > entries as you type. In a column of IDs or similar critical data, that > behaviour is really bad. I have never tried the MS site, but I haven't been > able to find any entry about how to turn that particular automatic behaviour > off. NOt sure in Excel 2000, but on whatever version it is you get in Office 2003, you can't. I pursued this and I eventually got the word from MS itself: you can't disable that "feature". > PS, I quit using Excel for most important work after it returned a negative > variance on some data I was collecting descriptive statistics on. you can detect errors in your data... but how can you be sure that when you receive data processed by collaborators, for instance, there hasn't been a mistake? -- Dr. Jose I. de las Heras Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology Phone: +44 (0)131 6513374 Institute for Cell & Molecular Biology Fax: +44 (0)131 6507360 Swann Building, Mayfield Road University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH9 3JR UK -- The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.