Complete Guide: How to Open and Import CSV Files to Excel

In the rapidly evolving digital age, CSV (Comma-Separated Values) files are becoming a commonly used format for storing and transmitting data. However, often opening CSV files in Excel can cause data to become unstructured and difficult to read.

To solve this challenge, we present a complete guide on how to convert CSV files to Excel workbooks with quality and precise results.

First Method: Convert CSV with Open Excel

The first method we recommend is to open the CSV file directly from the Excel workbook. The steps are as follows:

1. Open the Microsoft Excel application.
2. On the “File” menu, click “Open” to start the process.
3. Find and select the CSV file you want to convert.
4. Click “Open” to open the CSV file.
5. The data from the CSV file will be displayed in a new Excel workbook automatically.

This method is a simple and fast way to convert CSV files to Excel. However, note that the file format remains CSV and has not changed to.xlsx.

The drawback of opening a CSV file through the Open menu in Microsoft Excel is that Excel automatically tries to change the format of the data in the CSV file. This can cause the number and date data to become cluttered as Excel tries to recognize the format.

For example, Excel may change the order of days and months within a date which can have an impact on the interpretation of dates by other systems. Excel will also make formatting changes to the numeric data that may cause the data to become incompatible with imported templates intended for other systems.

Also, when opening a CSV file through the Open menu in Excel, it retains the original extension.csv and isn’t changed to.xlsx or.xls. Excel also has a limit on the number of rows and columns in a CSV file, which is limited to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns.

Second Method: Convert CSV with Import Data

The second method is to convert the CSV file using the “Import Data” feature in Excel. The steps are as follows:

1. Open the Microsoft Excel application.
2. In the “Data” menu, select “From Text/CSV.”
3. Find and select the CSV file you want to convert.
4. Click “Open” to continue.
5. Select the type of delimiter used in the CSV file, such as a comma or semicolon.
6. Click “Load” if the data format is as desired. If you need to change the data format, click the “Transform Data” button.
7. To change the data format of a column, click the icon in the column heading and select a data format.
8. Click “Replace current” in the dialog box. Repeat any other columns for which you want to change the data format.
9. Then click the “Close & Load” button to import to Excel.

If you follow those steps, you can open the CSV file correctly in Excel without unwanted format changes. Also, make sure to always make a backup copy of your CSV file before making any changes to avoid losing valuable data.

With this method, you can convert CSV files into Excel (.xlsx) format with more organized data structures.

Conclusion

In this complete guide, we have explained how to convert CSV files to Excel workbooks with an efficient and precise method. Using the first method, you can quickly open a CSV file in Excel, even if the file format is fixed.csv. Meanwhile, the second method allows you to convert CSV files into Excel format (.xlsx) in a more structured manner.

Hope this guide has helped you in overcoming the challenges of converting CSV files to Excel and improving the quality of your work. By mastering this conversion process, you will be more efficient in managing data and optimizing your performance in an ever-evolving digital world.