How do I stop CSV from auto formatting?

Note: the methods provided in this tutorial are tested in Excel 2021, there may be some different in different Excel verisions.

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How do I stop Excel from auto formatting my CSV file?
How do I save a CSV file without changing the format?
How do I remove formatting from a CSV file?
Why does my exported CSV data get converted to weird formats?

Save the csv file as a text file then import

Open the CSV file through Notepad and click File > Save as to, in the Save as dialog, choose a folder to place the file, and select Text document (*.txt) from the Save as type.

2. Enable Excel, click Data > From Text/CSV, then choose the text file you save just now, and click Import.

3. In the popping dialog, click Transform Data button to enable the Power Query Editor window.

4. Select the column that you want to keep text format. And then go to Data Type in the Transform group, and choose Text, and the Change Column Type dialog pops out, and choose Replace current or Add new step button as you need.

5. click Close & Load to load the data into a new sheet.

If you are in Excel 2010 or earlier versions, there is no Power Query, you need to do as follow:

2. After saving the csv as text file, click File > Open > Browse to choose the text file you want to import.

3. A Text Import Wizard dialog pops out, check Delimited option, then click Next button.

4. In the step 2 of 3, check Comma option, click Next.

5. In the step 3of 3, select the date column, and check Text option, this will make the dates stored texts in Excel. Click Finish.

Now a new workbook opened and stored the data of text file.

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How do I stop Excel from auto formatting my CSV file?

Create new workbook..

Data > From Text/CSV > Select your CSV file..

Data type detection > do not detect..

How do I save a CSV file without changing the format?

Saving in Microsoft Excel.

Open a . CSV document in Microsoft Excel..

Click File..

Select Save As....

Select File Type as CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (. csv)..

Click Save..

If prompted, choose Keep Current Format..

How do I remove formatting from a CSV file?

Click on “Save As” from the “File” or “Windows Button” menu in Excel then choose the “Other Formats” option and choose “Unicode Text” as the file type. Type a file name into the “File Name” box and click on “Save.” This will create a text file containing the data but with the CSV formatting stripped out.

Why does my exported CSV data get converted to weird formats?

Instead, this is due to the way Excel and other spreadsheet programs open a CSV file and display the data therein. Basically, spreadsheet programs are designed to be used for calculation purposes, so they tend to apply mathematical formats to numbers when the CSV file is opened directly into the program.