Stop Excel from automatically converting certain text values to dates

Question

Does anyone happen to know if there is a token I can add to my csv for a certain field so Excel doesn\'t try to convert it to a date?

I\'m trying to write a .csv fil

Answer 1

Without modifying your csv file you can:

1. Change the excel Format Cells option to "text"
2. Then using the "Text Import Wizard" to define the csv cells.
3. Once imported delete that data
4. then just paste as plain text

excel will properly format and separate your csv cells as text formatted ignoring auto date formats.

Kind of a silly work around, but it beats modifying the csv data before importing. Andy Baird and Richard sort of eluded to this method, but missed a couple important steps.