That is not what happens in Excel 2007 when I tried it just now. I tried saving the same file I displayed in my prior message as an .xls file and as an .xlsx file and in both cases the first column came back as text, as I had specified to the Wizard on the initial import. I guess they fixed the behavior in Excel 2007.
On 9/6/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Yes, and then you save it, you open it again... same behaviour. > The only way I found around it was to insert a character at the > beginning of every element in such columns. An apostrophe works, but > it looks ugly. Yes, when loading the data in R you could easily clean > it up automatically... doable. > You can add a space. Then it will not show, but you have to remember > that if you ever use the data for labels etc. You shouldn't need to do > that in the first place... > > Jose > > Quoting Erich Neuwirth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > There is a hack to get around the problem. > > It is definitely not a good solution, just a hack. > > > > Open the .csv file in a text editor and select everything. > > Paste it into an empty Excel sheet. > > Then use Data -> Text to Columns > > > > The third dialog box (at least it is the third one in Excel 2003) > > allows you to format each column of the data. This is the place where > > you can switch off the date interpretation of your ID column. > > > > AUG1838 probably is not onterpreted as date because Excel dates only > > start at 1/1/1900. > > > > > > Duncan Murdoch wrote: > >> On 8/28/2007 3:16 AM, J Dougherty wrote: > >>> 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. > >>>> > > > > -- > > Erich Neuwirth, University of Vienna > > Faculty of Computer Science > > Computer Supported Didactics Working Group > > Visit our SunSITE at http://sunsite.univie.ac.at > > Phone: +43-1-4277-39464 Fax: +43-1-4277-39459 > > > > ______________________________________________ > > 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. > > > > > > > > -- > 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. > ______________________________________________ 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.
