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I've imported a CSV file having the first column to be date-time values in ISO 8601 format like

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

for the first moment of the year 2012.

Then, willing to make LibreOffice to recognize the format (as I was looking forward to plot a diagram), I've selected the column, chosen Format Cells... and entered the custom time format as

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.000Z

And this seems to work if... I edit a cell to remove a hidden single-quote from its beginning (which serves to protect a cell content from being interpreted) as all the newly formatted cells now store values like

'2012-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

(note the single quote - it is only visible when you edit a particular cell).

And I am to do so for all the cells in the column. How can I automate this?

UPDATE: I've already found a solution for the particular case of mine: it helps to set a column format to "time" in the CSV import dialogue. But I am still curious how could this be done in case I wouldn't have the original .csv data file to import but only the .ods file with the data already imported without the format specified at the import time.

6 Answers 6

63

You can remove the leading single quote (which actually isn't part of the string in the cell) using a regex-based search and replace:

  • Search for all characters between the start and end of the string ^.*$
  • replace with match &
2
  • 6
    @ivan - It's a messy hack, but it doesn't actually replace the quote at all. Basically, from the regex engine's perspective, the quote isn't there at all (it's a special flag on the cell). As such, what it does is match the entire contents of the cell (which doesn't have the quote in the string, remember). Then, what it does is delete the cell contents (which includes clearing the "plain text" flag), and then reinsert the contents. The data autodetection engine then sees a number, and interprets the reinserted data as such.
    – Fake Name
    Jun 5, 2013 at 22:10
  • It's worth noting that this will probably delete any formatting that relies on characters that set special cell flags, as well as the "plain-text" number flags.
    – Fake Name
    Jun 5, 2013 at 22:10
38

From the "Data" menu, choose "Text to columns".

3
  • 1
    Crucially, the "Text to columns" function allows altering the "type" of the cells. Sometimes it's stuck on "text" and no amount of re-formatting seems to fix it. Here's how: at the bottom of the dialog box under "Fields", click the column header which says "Standard", then select the desired type in the "Column type" drop-down.
    – sxc731
    Dec 1, 2016 at 12:53
  • The Regex didn't work in LibraOffice, but change the column type to "Text" from "Standard" using Text to Columns worked.
    – Exit
    May 24, 2018 at 7:35
  • Scratch that, as soon as I try to style the column as a number with 8 decimals, it adds the single quotes back in front. I give up, returning to Excel.
    – Exit
    May 24, 2018 at 7:41
0

An attempt for regex replacing of ^.\*$ with & crashed LibreOffice 5. Replacing of .\* with & worked fine.

0

This problem with the single quote mark still exists in LibreCalc. I tested both solutions and they work.

Text to Columns is probably the easiest to remember:

Data> Text to Columns> Make sure the settings do not actually split the data, then click OK. ...Done.

Search and Replace might be good if you need to get rid of the leading single quote indicator in the entire sheet:

Edit> Find and Replace> Make sure "regular expressions" is selected then search for.* and replace with & ...Done.

You do not need the ^ and $ characters to indicate the start and end of the string. The dot which means "any character" and the asterisk which means "zero or more times" does the trick.

But be careful; Removing the ' text flag opens up your data to auto-reinterpretation. In my experience, (at least with Excel) this leads to data corruption as it is often not correctly predicted which data should be reformatted and how.

0

To clarify and paraphrase what sxc731 has said:

When you download an XL file from the net and open it in Libre Calc, the numeric columns can have a single quote in front - so they are regarded as text. No formulas or numeric operations will work on the column. But Format menu /Cells still shows it as Number. This is misleading! To convert it to actual numbers:

  • (1) Select the column by clicking its header. This is important. Otherwise the menu item in the next step will be disabled.
  • (2) Click Data menu/ 'Text to columns' option.
  • (3) In the resulting dialog box, Fields/Column type drop down box will be initially empty. (This is probably a bug). To populate it: Click the header 'Standard' in the mini spreadsheet displayed below it. Now the Column type dropdown will be populated.
  • (4) Select 'Standard' as the column type.

Now the numbers in the column will be treated as numbers, and not as text.

-2

Actually, you need a to quote the dollar sign first.

Basically libreOffice is prepending a single quote in the field, for some unknown reason. So, you need to replace anything up to the dollar sign with nothing. So, use the regex of ^.*\$ and replace it with nothing. Worked for me.

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