Writing long numbers to csv

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

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Hey,

So I'm trying to write long numbers to a csv eg.

43564765876978
56576867897699
45765879789789

But these keep getting replaced with values such as 4.575769E+12, I'm assuming its because the csv is making the column a number column and its too big? 
How can I fix this? 
Note: it's get Ugly scientific notation format when digit number count greater then 12 number digit.

Many thanks.

What I have tried:

I have tried to convert number in string and generate csv but still same issue.

Posted 21-Mar-18 20:26pm

Niranjankr

Updated 29-Oct-20 0:10am

v2

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Comments

Tomas Takac 22-Mar-18 3:35am

How are you writing the CSV file? Please update your question with the code.

Maciej Los 22-Mar-18 4:20am

What kind of application do you use to open csv or where do you display the data?
If you're using MS Excel - yeah, you'll see scientic format, but the numbers are correct. Open csv file in Notepad and you'll see proper number format.

6 solutions

Solution 3

Quote:
But these keep getting replaced with values such as 4.575769E+12

This not a csv related problem, if you output to screen, you will see the exact same values.
It is the program that write to csv that is guilty.
It can be the formatting when you output the numbers or the datatype that store the data.
But as long as we don't see your code, it is difficult to tell.

Posted 22-Mar-18 1:55am

Patrice T

Comments

CHill60 22-Mar-18 9:12am

It's more likely that the OP is using Excel to view the file! :-)

Patrice T 22-Mar-18 9:31am

Possible, but I see nothing about Excel.

CHill60 22-Mar-18 13:08pm

It's something I see here daily - the users complain that the numbers "have gone weird" because they insist on opening CSV files with Excel - which automatically changes the numerics to scientific notation

Solution 7

You can simply add a "\t" at the end of the number. This will add a space after and stop converting it into Scientific Notation.

Eg:

let number = 123456789 + "\t";

Posted 29-Oct-20 0:11am

Member 14978422

Comments

CHill60 29-Oct-20 7:19am

What is let?
The number is not being converted to anything, the OP was clearly opening the CSV with Excel and the display of the value was in scientific notation.
CSV contents are all strings.
And this solution does not work anyway - try saving 12345678934567 , 12345678934567, to a .csv file and opening it in Excel

SandipAgrawal100 4-Jan-21 7:56am

+ "\t" helped. Thanks

Member 15489475 5-Jan-22 4:19am

I have used "\t". Its Working, but CSV LENGTH count is added extra one.
Example: 12345678934567
Actual lenght count = 14, but show in 15. Can you provide solution for that.

Solution 5

Issue must be of data type.
You must be converting data type double to string, which converts number into exponential form.
e.g.

double val = 43564765876978;
string s = val.ToString();

instead of above use ulong as following and every thing is ok.

ulong val = 43564765876978;
string s = val.ToString();

Posted 21-Aug-19 0:35am

ProgrammingExplorer

Comments

Maciej Los 21-Aug-19 7:33am

I'd suggest to read a question again. Your answer is not related to the question. BTW: Converting numbers to string and vice versa is very bad idea.

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Maciej Los · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-21T22:37:00

Solution 2

I strongly believe that Uroš Šmon[^] is right as to this statement: "Csv is very simple text format, that knows nothing about its content". You did not provide a way you save numbers into csv file, so we can't help you to resolve your issue, because we have no access to your screen or data. I tested below code and it works perfect, even if Excel displays the numbers in scientic format.

C#

decimal[] numbers = {43564765876978, 56576867897699, 45765879789789};
string path = @"D:\text.csv";

string[] lines = numbers.Select(x=>x.ToString()).ToArray();

File.WriteAllLines(path, lines);

lines = File.ReadAllLines(path);
//result:
//43564765876978 
//56576867897699 
//45765879789789

Posted 21-Mar-18 22:37pm

Maciej Los

Comments

Niranjankr 23-Mar-18 1:36am

Please open your text.csv file. issue exists.

result is ::::

4.35648E+13
5.65769E+13
4.57659E+13

Maciej Los 23-Mar-18 2:45am

No, there's no isssue, when you'll use method my method. I have no idea what method you use. As i mentioned, when you open this file using Excel, you'll always see scientic format.

Niranjankr 23-Mar-18 5:32am

"you'll always see scientic format."

If we do not want to open in scientific format then how it is possible.

CPallini 23-Mar-18 4:10am

My 5.

Maciej Los 23-Mar-18 12:18pm

Thank you, Carlo!

Uroš Šmon · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-21T20:54:00

Solution 1

Problem is not on csv side. Csv is very simple text format, that knows nothing about its content. It looks like you are writing floating point numbers into it, using default format. Use format with zero decimal places on write, or convert numbers to integer

Posted 21-Mar-18 20:54pm

Uroš Šmon

Comments

Niranjankr 22-Mar-18 2:59am

I am sending string value. it is big digit(17). "15704984052700001"

that is append on stringbuilder.

Uroš Šmon 22-Mar-18 3:20am

csv has no type on column, they are all strings. Check how csvhelper is working with columns and column types. I have never used it, because csv is so simple

Maciej Los 22-Mar-18 4:36am

5ed!

CPallini 23-Mar-18 4:10am

5.

Niranjankr · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-22T19:56:00

Solution 4

if we place a ' at the front of the number in the csv cell, excel will format it as text. 

But then you will have to parse out the ' if you plan to use it as a number. 

This is specific to Excel and may or may not work in other spreadsheet applications.


Note :: it is not a proper solution but we can use to show it and while read data from csv need to ignore it.

Posted 22-Mar-18 19:56pm

Niranjankr

Comments

Maciej Los 23-Mar-18 3:08am

Note that we're talking about csv file instead of Excel... So, your solution is wrong.
By The Way: adding a ['] at the front of number, changes number to text. Are you sure that OP wants to store text instead of numbers?

Niranjankr 26-Mar-18 3:35am

Note :: it is not a proper solution but we can use to show it and while read data from csv need to ignore it.

Niranjankr 23-Mar-18 3:44am

Yes sure.