Re: Leading Zeros Stripped from Zips from CSV import in SSConvert

[Morten Welinder <mortenw gnome org>]

Don't use csv.  If you have N people discussing csv files,
you have N^2 opinions on how to handle csv files.

So don't use csv files.

Really.  If I change how they work, someone else is going to
be upset.

Now when I say that, people generally ignore me.  That's ok,
but I don't feel guilty when csv files bite them.

You can get what you want using the configurable text importer
and setting "Text" format for the column that has zip codes or
whatever.  That way the text will not be interpreted as a number.

Morten



On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 5:24 PM, Robert Huffman
<Robert thinkinspired com> wrote:
> Thank you in advance for your help.
>
> TLDR: When converting from CSV to XLS(X) with SSConvert, leading zeros on
> zip codes get stripped.  ie: 08401 turns into 8401.
>
> Detail:
> I am working on a web application that uses PHP on the backend that allows
> users to download data as CSV, XLS, or XLSX.  We use PHP to export the data
> as CSV, then use SSConvert to convert the data to XLS(X).
>
> This has been generally working alright for us (minus some bumps that we
> have overcome).  However, we have now hit a snag.
>
> When we try to convert zip codes with a leading zero (or more than one, such
> as 00501) the leading zeros get stripped away, which can present major pain
> when working with the data later.
>
> Now, I know this isn't an excel display issue because I opened up the
> resulting xlsx as a zip, then looked at the xml file for the data, and found
> the leading zero stripped there too.  Additionally, I tried converting from
> csv -> csv, and the zeros were stripped there too.
>
> I tried using the both "Gnumeric_Excel:xlsx" and "Gnumeric_Excel:xlsx2" for
> export, and have been using "Gnumeric_stf:stf_csvtab" for import.
>
> I tried using "Gnumeric_stf:stf_assistant" because "Text import
> (configurable)" sounded like it might be what I wanted. But it didn't seem
> to want to convert (or throw an error), and I couldn't find any
> documentation on how I would configure it's import.
>
> I tried refreshing my C skills by pulling down the repo from Github in the
> hopes I could use the source code for inspiration.  Instead, it reminded me
> how rusty I am with C, and how unfamiliar I am with the code base.  I
> managed to see some undocumented command line args, that really don't help
> me right now.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you!
>
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