Why does Excel think CSV files are SYLK?

Question

score 17 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 07 '15 at 16:09

17

Your file probably starts with ID; or something similar.

If the first two characters of the file are uppercase ID Excel assumes it's an SYLK file type. If you want to keep the column name you can make the characters lower case or insert an apostrophe, ', as first character in a text editor before opening in Excel.

The problem goes back to at least Office 2003 and is still present in Office 2013.

edited Oct 07 '15 at 16:09

BowlesCR

2,697
12
19

answered Nov 12 '10 at 07:00

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

111,361
10
201
247

Yep, that was it. – Jonathan Allen Nov 23 '10 at 18:28
4

What an awful format specification. I've got a .csv file that begins with "IDNUM," and Excel isn't smart enough to read it as a CSV? Oy. – nmpeterson Sep 18 '12 at 14:29
I find that Excel is horrible in general when it comes to CSV files. – Jonathan Allen Apr 25 '17 at 23:35

Why does Excel think CSV files are SYLK?

1 Answers1

Linked