Changing Delimiter in Excel

Adjusting Windows Regional Settings

To change the delimiter for CSV files in Excel, modify the List separator in Windows Regional settings. This alters the delimiter for creating, opening, and saving CSV files in Excel.

Importing CSV with Custom Delimiter

In Excel 2013 and earlier, use the Text Import Wizard to choose a custom delimiter. For Excel 2016 and later, utilize Power Query to specify the delimiter when importing a CSV file.

Setting Separator in CSV File

Directly specify the separator in the CSV file to ensure Excel reads it correctly, especially in Excel 365 where commas as separators and dots as delimiters may cause issues.

Global Impact of Changing the Separator

Be aware that changing the default CSV separator globally in Windows Region settings affects all programs that use this setting, not just Excel.

Checking Delimiter in Notepad

After saving an Excel file as a CSV, check the used separator by opening the file in Notepad. The default is typically a comma, but this depends on your Windows Regional settings.

Common Use Cases

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  Importing CSV files with a custom delimiter into Excel
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  Converting text to columns in Excel using a non-standard delimiter
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  Facilitating the exchange of data between applications that use different delimiters
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  Ensuring accurate data parsing when importing log files with unique delimiters into Excel
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  Customizing Excel data importation from systems that output with region-specific delimiters

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