Skip to main content
G
Gregor27928517qdy1
Participant
January 13, 2023
Question

Change Separator / Deliminator for Excel export

  • January 13, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1107 views

Hi
I'm trying to create a PDF form with the goal to bulk export Data into an Excel spreadsheet. In some of the fields a "," might be used to separte parts of the entry (two names, or place and country). After the merge export to spreadsheet I have the issue that when I use the text to column feature,  some of the entries are off because adobe uses "," as the standard Separator / Deliminator.

Question is there a way to change the standard lets say to ";" or something else?
Thanks.
Greg

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Thom Parker
Community Expert
Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 13, 2023

So, you want to build CSV formatted data from the data entered into a PDF?  CSV is a very old and venerated data format. It's got nothing to do with Acrobat. There are rules for how CSV data is built. You can look them up. For example, to handling the case where a comma is used in the text of a data entry, double quote the entry. There are also rules for handling new lines and quotes.    

Acrobat has a built in feature for merging a set of PDF forms into a CSV file. It's handles all of this for you. But if you want to do it with your own script, then quote the text data, and also look up the rules for CSV 

 

 

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
    G
    Gregor27928517qdy1Author
    Participant
    January 14, 2023

    Hi Thom

    Thanks for your reply. I think I was a bit unclear in my question. I'm using the built in "Merge Data Files into Spreadsheet" feature and I get the data into a cvs file. That parts works like a charm and I have the data from each document in one line with "," as separators between them. My question is if there's an option somewhere to tell adobe to use something other than a "," as the seperator since some people use "," in their entries in the fields. Thins means when I try to turn the collected data into a workable spreadsheet with collums it throws the formatting off. 
    Am I making sense?

    Thanks for your help. 
    Greg

    Thom Parker
    Community Expert
    Thom ParkerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 14, 2023

    No, the delimiter cannot be changed.  

    I see what you mean, but it does not make sense, because text data containing commas does not throw the formatting off. As I explained in the previous post, there is a CSV specification that handles this issue. Acrobat follows this specification when generating the CSV file. And as such, Excel has no problem importing a CSV file which has commas in the text data. 

    If you are seeing a problem in Excel, then perhaps maybe there is a setting in Excel that needs to be changed. 

     

     

     

     

    Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices