How do I read correctly this ASCII text file?
I can download it as a zip file here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/eo2016.zip
When I open it out of the zip file, add ".txt" to the file name, and open it in Excel - there are many numbers without any sense displayed (screenshot attached).enter image description here
I have also opened it in MatLab and RStudio, but there these numbers are also displayed.
Anybody knows how to do this correctly?
As discussed in the comments, the file is in fixed-width format (line length: 9444), and column positions have been specified in a separate Excel sheet.
Here are 3 possibilities to import such a file in Excel.
1. Excel's 'Convert Text to Columns' wizard
There's a 'Text to Columns' button in the 'Data' tab of Excel's ribbon.
It supports fixed-width files, but manually placing 833 column separators will be an incredibly tedious job.
And there seems to be no way to save the column definitions for subsequent imports.
2. Use Excel formulas
From the specs sheets (EO990_16), copy columns C and D, and paste them to another Excel sheet, transposed; use Paste Special - Transpose. This should populate rows 1 and 2 as follows:
1 13 22 26 27 102 162 ...
12 9 4 1 75 60 2 ...
Now fill the rest of the sheet starting from row 3 with formulas referencing the data sheet, like you see below.
This is a straightforward duplication of any single cell horizontally and vertically.
=MID(Data!$A3, A$1, A$2) =MID(Data!$A3, B$1, B$2) =MID(Data!$A3, C$1, C$2) ...
=MID(Data!$A4, A$1, A$2) =MID(Data!$A4, B$1, B$2) =MID(Data!$A4, C$1, C$2) ...
=MID(Data!$A5, A$1, A$2) =MID(Data!$A5, B$1, B$2) =MID(Data!$A5, C$1, C$2) ...
... ... ...
Source:
https://www.wizardofexcel.com/2011/09/28/saving-a-fixed-width-import-layout/
3. Convert to CSV
CSV is easy to import.
This command-line approach may help:
convert a fixed width file from text to csv
As a solution I used Excel, just separating the data with formulas according to the length of each cell described in the explanation excel.
If it's a text document why don't you open it in a text editor?
Related
I have data in notepad with more than 1000+ entries, which need to convert in to Excel with particular break based on length. can someone help
011000015FRB-BOS FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON MABOSTON Y Y20040910
File format is as below
Position Field
1-9 Routing number
1 Office code
I tried delimiting option but dint worked out.
If your data always has the routing number in columns 1-9, then delimited import is the way to go. Choose Import From Text, then select Fixed Width and click Next. On Step 2, click at each character that would be a separator. Eg, click at character 9 to split it into two columns with the first column haviong the first nine characters and the second column having the rest. Step 3 will allow you to set the data format. I'd recommend setting the first column to text so Excel doesn't try to use scientific notation or something on your account numbers.
i'm trying to import a text file of csv data into excel. The data contains mostly integers but there's one column with strings. I'm using the Data tab of excel professional plus 2019. However, when I select comma as the delimiter i loose 5 of the 16 columns, starting with the one containing strings. The data looks like the below. the date and the 7 numbers are in their own columns (just white space separated) . can anyone help or explain many thanks
2143, Wed, 6,Jul,2016, 38,20,03,39,01,24,04, 2198488, 0, Lancelot , 6
Before
after
full data is on https://github.com/CH220/textfileforexcel
Your problem stems from the very first line of data in your text file:
40,03,52,02,07,20,14, 13137760, 1, Lancelot , 7
As you can see, there are only eleven "segments". Hence, when you try to use the import dialog to separate by comma, there will only be 11 columns even though subsequent rows have 16 columns.
Possible solutions:
Correct the text file so the first line has the desired number of segments
Change the Import Dialog, as you did, to comma, then
Transform
Edit the second line of the generated M-code to change from Columns=11 to Columns=16. You do this in the Advanced Editor
Source = Csv.Document(File.Contents("C:\Users\ron\Desktop\new 2.txt"),[Delimiter=",", Columns=16, Encoding=1252]),
Change the Fixed Width "argument" from 0,23 => 0
Transform
Split Column by delimiter (using the comma) in Power Query.
To me, the "best" way would be to correct the text file.
I am trying to enter approximately 190 txt datafiles in Excel using the New Query tool (Data->New Query->From File->From Folder). In the Windows explorer the data are properly ordered: the first being 0summary, the second 30summary etc.
However, when entering them through the query tool the files are sorted as shown in the picture (see line 9 for example, you will see that the file is not in the right position):
The files are sorted based on the first digit instead of the value represented. Is there a solution to this issue? I have tried putting space between the number and the summary but it also didn't work. I saw online that Excel doesn't recognize the text within "" or after /, but I am not allowed to save the text files with those symbols in their name in Windows. Even when removed the word summary the problem didn't fix. Any suggestions?
If all your names include the word Summary:
You can add a column "Extract" / "Text before delimiter" enter "Summary", change the column type to Number and sort over that column
If the only numbers are those you wish to sort on, you can
add a custom column with just the numbers
Change the data type to whole number
sort on that.
The formula for the custom column:
Text.Select([Name],{"0".."9"})
If the alpha portion varies, and you need to sort on that also, you can do something similar adding another column for the alpha portion, and sorting on that.
If there might be digits after the leading digits upon which you want to sort, then use the following formula for the added column which will extract only the digits at the beginning of the file name:
=Text.Middle([Name],0,Text.PositionOfAny([Name],{"A".."z"}))
Is there a way to stop Excel 2010 from doing math on a bunch of cells containing multiple numbers with leading plus or minus signs? E.g.
-706795 -1456130 -1869550 -936304 -1729830 -1737860 -687165 -16807800
Right now it sums the numbers up into one value. I would like them displayed as above. Formatting the cell as text doesn't work. I get this data from a CSV and have limited control over its contents...
Use a single quote
'-706795 -1456130 -1869550 -936304 -1729830 -1737860 -687165 -16807800
Use the text import wizard to load each value into an individual column. You may have to rename the CSV file as '.txt' to get the import wzard up by default, (shameless rep seeking here:).
I need to read the following text in a file and store the values with field names. Its actually copied from am excel sheet:
A: B C D E (not TEXT based)
Field Description Length in bytes Count Total bytes
Identification 10 1 10
IX 4 1 4
Scan date time 8 1 8
Machine type 4 1 4
I stored it in a stringlist and I am unsure about what to do next. Can anyone please help? Thanks.
First of all, I'd save it from Excel as a .csv, open it in Notepad, and copy it from there. The lack of (unambiguous) field delimiters in your current format makes it awkward to tokenise. When saving the .csv, pick a field delimiter which doesn't appear in any of your text fields, and leave the text delimiter blank.
With that done, just split each of your strings on the delimiter character, and do what you want with the pieces. Simplest way to do it is probably to set the string as the CommaText on a second TStringList.