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I just want to know if there is a way to keep excel from re-formating my files dates. especially for a csv file

please do not tell me to import the file to excel because I do not want to do that each time. That is NOT the solution to this.

many people that work with DATES and we do not want to reformat the date each time we open a file.

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  • Your question is unclear, you should take the time to explain the problem you are facing.
    – Michael Frank
    Sep 17, 2019 at 4:50
  • Importing the file into Excel IS the real answer, whether you like it or not. Csv is a text format. Excel only handles text files in a secondary way, as it is mostly about dealing with tabular data, which is not usually simply text. To get from one to the other requires conversion, which is what the import process does.
    – music2myear
    Sep 18, 2019 at 3:44
  • @music2myear, thanks for your explanation, it makes sense to just explain that since now it is clear to me that this is not what excel is made for rather. better all the other nonsense answers trying to convince people otherwise. I hate to edit my csv files on a plain text editor and I tried to set up excel for that but it keeps editing my Dates formats. This should be the ansewer.
    – Victor
    Sep 19, 2019 at 4:33

2 Answers 2

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Excel works with CSV as text file. Just recognises some characters for data distribution into columns and rows. If you want excel to import data from CSV correctly, you must use an importing functions of MS Excel. Use Data -> Import external data -> From text and choose your CSV file. In next step, you would choose how you will separate columns (check separators), then choose column separators, and finaly in the next step you can choose a format for every column (general, text, date). If you choose date, it will help you to inmport data correctly. Best regards, Lukas

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  • I do not want to have to do that import process each time I open the csv I need to use. Nobody has time for that insert meme. My main problem is that it keeps changing my dates formats so I have to re-formate it each time I open a csv file. not so user frendly in my opinion, specialy since excel won't even allow me to set my desired date formate. I think this is not an csv problem but an excel problem
    – Victor
    Sep 19, 2019 at 4:42
  • @Victor, as I mentioned before, Excel work with CSV as a text file, and it really is a text file. You can open it in Notepad and can see whole the file is readable as a plain text. Because it is plain text, Excel is so kind and offer you a possibility of using an import function, where you can define data format for each column of the file. Moreover, Excel offers another excelent functions for data import from CSV.
    – Muji
    Sep 19, 2019 at 8:59
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Importing the file into Excel IS the real answer, whether you like it or not.

CSV is a text format. Excel only handles text files in a secondary way, as it is mostly about dealing with tabular data, which is not usually simply text. To get from one to the other requires conversion, which is what the import process does.

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