PS Variables errors on empty cells

[Chuck-ND]

I am working on a data sheet design where we will be outputting 700 or so sheets. After much trouble shooting and reading online I have solved all but one of my problems when importing data from a CSV file. Hopefully one of you can help me out.

I have a section where I am listing application properties, the excel data has a variation of 1 to 5 applications per data sheet, so in my excel sheet it looks like this:

Applications_01	Applications_02	Applications_03	Applications_04	Applications_05
abc	def	xyz	123
abc	def
abc	def	xyz	123	456
abc	def	xyz

The problem I am having is the empty cells cause an error "Data set 1 was Incomplete" because when opening up the CSV it looks like the line ends with a comma. A few things I have tried are putting a couple of spaces in each empty cell ( gives me a "program error") and using the bullet special character (outputs as • instead of •).

Any help on this would be great.

[davescm]

Hi

If a character instead of an empty data field is acceptable you could use '-  or '_  or '.  in Excel which outputs as - or _ or . respectively.

These work without any errors

Dave

[davescm · Accepted solution]

Hi

Since typing my last answer I found a better way

Type "       that is " followed by a single space into Excel.  That will parse OK and be treated just as a space when replacing text in the variable

Makes:

or

or

Hope that helps

Dave

[Chuck-ND]

Perfect! That is exactly what I needed. Thank you much.

[davescm]

You're welcome

Dave

[Abay220256542tlq]

Hello,Dave! Please explain which character I need to write to get an empty field, I tried it with and without quotes, and nothing comes out with the words "that is"

[Bojan Živković]

Do you want words that is to appear? It is not clear to me what is your end goal, please explain further.

@davescm is explaining how to get empty space in Photoshop Type layer, I believe, not how to get words that is. If you want words that is then simply type "that is" in cell.

[davescm]

Don't type that is. That was just part of my explanation.

Simply type a quote followed by a single space.

" 

Dave

[AMH ESMA]

you are brilliant , fantastic .....i dont know what to say thank you ...

[angie_taylor]

Have you tried adding a space in these cells? or would it work to add a zero?

[DarkBahamut]

The quote + space method did not work for me with Photoshop 2020 win. However, after a little trial and error, a quote + space + quote in the empty cell/csv location translated to an empty space to replace the string variable in Photoshop. Praise the gods, I was at wits end!

[adamfp]

Thank you for posting this!

And for anyone else in a bind, I've also learned that Photoshop won't accept em dashes! I also wrapped all my cells in double quotation marks in case they had commas I missed.

Try this formula in sheets to do this automatically (if you want to change cell A2, put it in B2)"

=CONCATENATE(CHAR(34), A2, CHAR(34))