How to easily convert (open or import) a CSV file to Microsoft Excel?

What do you understand by the term CSV file in Microsoft Excel?

It was well known that, a CSV (or Comma Separated Value) file is primarily a text file that contains the data in the form of a list as well, and the CSV files are generally used for the purpose of sharing out the data between the programs which cannot open the same file type respectively.

If, in case, we are planning on sending someone an Excel spreadsheet just before leaving the workplace for a few days, then in that particular condition, we are required to attach a CSV file containing the same data efficiently to the email.

What is the File Format for CSV?

Most often, the respective CSV files are characterized by simple structures. And once we open a CSV file, we will be able to see lines containing the same sequence of the data as well. Usually, commas separate the data respectively.

Moreover, the CSV file does not always use commas to separate information. A semicolon, space, or a different character might also separate the pieces of information. However, the most common character is none other than the Comma.

And if in case we are wondering if the File we opened is a CSV file, then, in that case, we will be looking at its extension. As the CSV files have the .csv file extension.

Besides all this, two different ways can be effectively used to transfer a CSV file to Microsoft Excel: by opening it or importing it as external data. Much more, this particular tutorial will provide detailed guidance on both methods as well. And we will also be red-flagging out the possible pitfalls and suggesting out the most effective solutions respectively:

1. Introduction about the CSV Files into the Excel.
2. What are the advantages of converting CSV files into Microsoft Excel?
3. What are the various methods which can be used to open a CSV File?
   1. Opening of CSV File in Microsoft Excel.
   2. By making use of Windows Explorer if we are using Windows OS.
4. What are the various methods which can be used to import CSV files into Excel?
5. Importing of a CSV File by just making use of the Power Query.
6. Importing of a CSV File by just making use of the Text Import Wizard.
7. CSV to Microsoft Excel: opening vs. importing.
8. Conversion of multiple CSV Files to Excel at once.
9. What are the important things an individual must remember while working with CSV files to Excel?

Let us get started with the above topics in detail,

Introduction about the CSV Files in the Excel

It is well known that Microsoft Excel is also an interesting tool for the purpose of handling data, much more the Microsoft Excel data can also be imported into many of the software, and even Excel can import most of the data from the various sources. And most of the time, we also have unstructured data as well.

So for that, the solution is none other than Excel. As it will help convert the data into a tabular structure respectively. CSV or the Comma Separated Values file is a commonly used format that can be purposely used for the purpose of storing out the important data which are primarily related to the statistics, contacts, etc. Importing of the data makes it easier to read CSV files, but sometimes there are unexpected data changes with the format changes, and the data looks much scrambled respectively. And CSV files can be easily imported further to many software like SAS, Tableau, etc., for Data Analysis and Visualization, respectively.

Besides, there are various techniques for the CSV data to look better and be organized in Microsoft Excel. Below are some examples and methods that can be used to import and read the data in Comma Separated Values format respectively.

# Example

Let us now assume that we have a text file with data separated by the help of commas.

1. And now after that, this particular File will be saved as a CSV file with a .csv extension.
   
2. Now, the respective CSV file is ready for use, and after that, we will go to Excel > File > Open > Browse. Then we will be selecting out the saved CSV file as depicted below.
   
3. And it could best seen that the respective CSV file is imported now as per our needs.
   
4. And if in case the data is not clear, then, we can easily applying formatting to the data and see the change as well.
   

After performing the above step, the respective CSV file is converted into an Excel file and is organized now in an effective manner.

The explanation for the above example

We all know that the respective CSV files have a specific amount of data primarily separated by commas. Furthermore, these specific files can be easily created in Excel, Notepad, etc.

And CSV files are used in organizations to transmit as well as store the data; multiple ways can be efficiently used for the conversion of the CSV files into Excel, as given below respectively:

1. Direct opening of the CSV files with Excel, respectively.
2. Opening of the respective CSV files through the windows explorer option as well.
3. Importing the CSV file data into Excel.

Moreover, the CSV files are converted into Excel for supportability purposes. This is because of the reason that it is much harder for Data analysts to draw insights from the given data in an efficient manner. And just after the conversion, each value gets separated by the commas placed into each cell separately, making the data clear.

What are the Advantages of converting CSV files into Microsoft Excel?

There are various advantages of converting the CSV files into Microsoft Excel, which are as follows:

1. It is much better to the storing of the data as well as the calculations as per our requirement.
2. Any other software that cannot open improved data security as Excel files.
3. Moreover, saving the CSV file in a tabular manner with .xlsx extension, respectively.
4. Data can effectively be displayed perfectly with each value in each cell respectively.
5. And also, the formatting of the data becomes easier and more convenient to use efficiently.
6. Analysis of the data, Graph plotting, and Visualization of the numerical data after converting the CSV file into Microsoft Excel.
7. Programming macros by using the VBA for data development purposes as well.

What are the various methods which can be used to open the CSV Files?

Various methods can be effectively used for the purpose of opening a CSV file in Microsoft Excel. Now we will see in detail how these methods work efficiently.

a) Opening of the CSV file in Microsoft Excel

1. It was known that the respective CSV files could be easily opened out in Microsoft Excel, and it became a new file in Microsoft Excel later.
   We have a CSV file with data separated with commas, as depicted below. And this FileFile is a text file saved with a .csv extension.
   
2. Now here the first row is the header, and below are the data about the selected company's employees. And a comma primarily separates each value. After that, we will import the File in Microsoft Excel by going to Excel now respectively.
   
3. Moreover, we can move to the File option at the top left corner and then efficiently Open > Browse, as depicted below.
   
4. Then, we will select the File from the particular location. And if we cannot see the FileFile, then in that case, the file type "All Excel files" can be changed to "All files," and then we will select the CSV file as shown below respectively.
   
5. After performing the above steps, our CSV file will be ready in Microsoft Excel.
   
6. And if we want to make the data clear as well as in an organized manner, then in that particular scenario, we can apply some of the formattings to differentiate the headers from other fields as well, and finally, the File is ready for further use.
   

b) By making use of Windows Explorer if we are using Windows OS

1. In this, we all need to have to go to the directory where the respective CSV file is located and will right-click on it. Now here, our File is located on the desktop, so we need to go to Open with > Excel, and the FileFile will be opened in Excel, respectively.
   
2. And after selecting Excel, it becomes the default program from then onwards; when we click on it, it will be opened in Microsoft Excel by default. Here is the CSV file open in Excel as well.
   
3. And after performing bit formatting, the FileFile is ready to use wisely.
   

What are the various methods which can be used to import CSV files into Excel?

There are the various methods that can be effectively used to import the CSV files into Microsoft Excel are as follows:

a) Importing of a CSV File by just making use of the Power Query.

It is well known that, in the Microsoft Excel version of 365, 2021, 2019 and 2016, we can import out respective the data from a text file by just connecting to it with the help of the Power Query as well; here is how we can achieve as well:

Step 1: First of all, we are required to move to the Data Tab in the Get and Transform Data Group and there we will be clicking on "From Text/CSV."

Step 2: And in the Import Data dialog box, we will be now selecting out the text file of our interest and then will click on the Import option effectively:

1. And in the respective preview dialog box, the following options are available to us which are as follows:

• Delimiter: In this, we must pick out the character that will separate the values in our text file.
• Data Type Detection: In data type detection, one can easily let Microsoft Excel automatically determine out the data type for each column which are generally based upon the first 200 rows (default) or the entire dataset.
• Transform Data: This will load the data to the Power Query Editor so that we can easily edit it before transferring it to Microsoft Excel.
• Load: Load will helps in controlling in which we need to import the data, and to for the purpose of getting out the csv file imported to a new worksheet, we need to select Load. So in order to transfer the data to an existing or new sheet in the form of a table, PivotTable/PivotChart, choose Load too effectively.

Step 3: In this step, we will be now clicking on the Load button which will import out the CSV data in the table format:

Just after that, the imported Table will be getting linked to the original CSV document, and we can easily update it anytime by refreshing out the query.

Tips and notes:

• If we need to change out the Table to a normal range, we will be right-clicking in any cell and clicking Table> Convert to Range, as this will be permanently removing out the query from the sheet as well as disconnecting the imported data from the original File .
• If the values in a certain column are imported in the wrong format, then in that case, we can easily try fixing it ourselves by just converting Text to number or Text to date, respectively.

b) Importing of a CSV File by just making use of the Text Import Wizard.

In this, the Text Import Wizard is basically a legacy feature, and beginning with Microsoft Excel version 2016, it is moved from the ribbon to Excel Options.

And if the Text Import Wizard is not available in our Microsoft Excel version, then that case, we usually have these two options:

• We can easily enable From Text (Legacy) feature as well.
• Much more getting out Excel to launch the Import Text Wizard automatically. For the purpose of achieving this, we are required to change out the file extension from .csv to .txt, open the text file from Excel, and after that we will be following the below-mentioned steps of the wizard:

Now to import a CSV file to Excel, this is what we need to do:

Step 1: In Microsoft Excel version 2013 and earlier versions, we need to go to the Data tab > Get External Data group and will click From Text respectively.

And it was well known that, in Microsoft Excel 2016 and later on, we need to go to the Data tab > Get & Transform Data group and will click on the Get Data > Legacy Wizards > From Text (Legacy) respectively:

Note: It should be noted that if in case the From Text wizard is not there, then we must make sure that we have enabled it, and if the Legacy Wizards is still grayed out, then after that we need to select an empty cell and try again.

Step 2: Now, in this step, in the Import Text File dialog box, we will browse for the .csv FileFile that we want to import and select it and click on the Import button (or double-click the FileFile).

Step 3: The Text Import Wizard will start, and we will follow its steps. Firstly, we are required to choose the below ones:

• The Delimited file type
• The row number to start import at (normally, row 1)
• Whether our data has headers or not

Besides all this, the preview window in the lower part of the wizard shows a few first entries from our CSV file.

Step 4: Now, after that we will be choosing out the delimiter as well as the text qualifier respectively.

• Delimiter: Delimiter is primarily the character that will separate values in our File. CSV is a comma-separated value file, so we must need to select a Comma. For a TXT file, we would be typically selecting out the Tab.
• Text qualifier: The Text qualifier is primarily considered as the character that will be enclosing out the values in an imported file. And all the respective Text between two qualifier characters will be imported as one value, even if in case the Text contains out the specified delimiter.

Besides all this, we will be then choosing out the double quote symbol (") as the text qualifier; and to check this, we can click Back and see which character encloses the values in the preview of our CSV file.

If in case our case, all the numbers with a thousand separator (which is also a comma) are wrapped in double quotes like "3,392", meaning they will be get imported into one cell and without specifying it with the double quote sign as the text qualifier, the numbers before and after a thousand separators would also go into two adjacent columns respectively.

After that, we need to ensure that our data will be getting imported as intended, so we need to look carefully at the Data preview before clicking on the Next option.

Tips and notes:

• And it should be noted that, if more than one consecutive delimiter is present in our CSV file, then in that case we need to select the Treat consecutive delimiters as one option to prevent putting the empty cells respectively.
• And it should be also noted that, if in case the preview option shows all data in one particular column, that means a wrong delimiter is being selected.

Step 5: In this step, we are required to define out the data format, and the default is General- as it will be converting a numeric value to numbers, date, and time values to dates, and all remaining data types to Text respectively.

And for the purpose of setting the other format for a specific column, we need to click anywhere within it in the Data Preview, and then we need to choose one of the options under the Column data format:

• For the purpose of keeping out the leading zeros, and we need to choose the Text format.
• And to correctly display out the dates, we must choose the Dateformat and then pick an appropriate format from the drop-down box respectively.

And when we are happy with the Data preview, we will also click on the Finish button.

Step 6: Now, we are required to choose whether to import data to an existing worksheet or a new one, after that we will be clicking on the OK option.

5) CSV to Microsoft Excel: opening vs. importing.

Whenever the Microsoft Excel opens a .csv file, then it makes use of our default data format settings for the purpose of understanding how exactly one need to display each text data column, which works fine in most of the situations.

If in case our text file has specific values and we primarily want to control how one can display them in Microsoft Excel, then we will be importing it rather than opening it. Here are a few typical use cases as well:

• The respective CSV file makes use of different delimiters.
• And also the CSV file basically containing out the different date formats.
• Some of the numbers have leading zeroes that should be kept on.
• And we want to see a preview of how our CSV data will be converted into Excel.

How does one save a CSV file in Microsoft Excel?

Now in this, whichever conversion method we are making use of it, then in that case, we can save the resulting FileFile as we normally would.

1. In our Microsoft Excel worksheet, we need to click on FileFile> Save as.
2. After that, we will browse the folder where we want to save the FileFile.
3. Next, to save as an Excel file, we need to select Excel Workbook (*.xlsx) from the Save as type drop-down menu. And to save as a comma-separated file, we must select CSV (Comma delimited) or CSV UTF-8.
4. We will be then clicking on the Saveoption.

And if in case we saved a CSV file in the .xls format in earlier versions, then in Excel 2010 and higher, you may encounter the error that is none other than the "The file is damaged and cannot be opened."

6) Conversion of multiple CSV Files to Excel at once.

It was well known that the respective Microsoft Excel would allow opening several workbooks at a time by using the standard Opencommand. This also works for CSV files.

To open multiple CSV files in Microsoft Excel, here are the steps for us to follow:

1. First, in our Microsoft Excel, we must click on the File> Open or press the Ctrl + O keys together.
2. We are required to click the Browse button and navigate to the source folder.
3. After that, in the drop-down list next to the File name box, we must select Text Files (*.txt, *.csv).
4. And then, we need to select our text files:
   1. To select the adjacent files, we need to click on the 1st FileFile, hold down the Shift key, and then click on the last FileFile. Both the clicked files and all the files between them will be selected effectively.
   2. And to select non-adjacent files, we will hold down the Ctrl key and click each File we want to open.
5. And with the multiple files selected, we will also be clicking on the Open button.

As in case of the Windows Explorer, we will be right-clicking on the selected files and picking out the "Open from the context" menu as well:

7) What are the important things an individual must remember while working with CSV files to Excel?

There are the various important things which need to be remembered by an individual while working with the CSV files in Excel is as follows:

1. Opening a CSV file is very much easy, and it does not change the file format of the File to .xlsx or any other file, respectively.
2. By default, the File needs to be better organized. And after importing it, we need to apply formatting to make the data look better respectively.