What does excel do with text qualifiers?

[spriggig]

I have a CSV file that has text properly formatted with quotes ("") around values that I want to be read as text. For instance, one column holds values like "-S" and "-XL", (these are shirt sizes as extensions to a part number) the quotes are present in the CSV file.

Using Excel's Import External Data function, the forementioned values are not recognized as text in spite of being qualified with quote marks. I'm forced to choose the column and mark it as Text instead of General.

What's the point of qualifying values as text if the qualifiers are being ignored? Am I doing something wrong? Thank you for any insight you might provide.

 

[byundt]

One workaround is to use an en-dash instead of a hyphen (minus sign) for the first character. If you do that, there is no need to enclose the field in quotes--Excel automatically recognizes it as text.

Here is an en-dash (ASCII 150) followed by a minus sign – -As you can see, the en-dash is just a little bit longer.

To enter an en-dash, use your numeric keypad (not the numbers above qwerty) and hold the ALT key down while you enter 0150.