It turns out that Excel saves UTF-8 CSV with aĪnd when opening CSV only recognises the encoding as UTF-8 if a BOM is present. On a more technical note, Excel does try to automatically identify Unicode CSV, but gets it wrong. Note that you can import a CSV file instead of opening it, and select the correct File origin:Įxcel fails to acknowledge both that everyone else uses UTF-8, and that most files live on some else’s computer, accessed via the web.Įxcel’s perspective doesn’t extend beyond the local system and its default encoding.ĬSV on the web defines a more modern standard.

That UTF-8 became the most popular text encoding on the web in 2008. To saving data about Mötley Crüe, and later opening it to discover the rather less metal M√∂tley Cr√ºe.īecause it parses the CSV using its default character encoding, not Unicode UTF-8. Character encoding misidentificationĬSV files don’t specify their own character encoding, so Excel guesses.ĬSV character encoding issues lead, for example, Standards-compliant CSV works more reliably elsewhere. Reasons to blame Excel for comma-separated values (CSV) issues #dataĮxcel causes some of the problems you see when you open a comma-separated values (CSV) file in Excel.

Writing by Peter Hilton CSV isn’t broken - Excel is broken CSV isn’t broken - Excel is broken - Peter Hilton

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