formatting/converting to .txt

**pavemar** · 11-02-2007, 03:22 PM

hello all,

I can sure use some help. I have Excell files that I need in .txt format, the format is quite particular.

Leading zeroes - I know I can add apostrophe and use concatanate to come extent, but there are a LOT of values in these files and I'm really stumped on how I can do this en masse.

Another issue is that decimal values are to be assumed in one of the text files (534.33 = 00000053433) and I'm not sure of the best way to do this.

Also, I'm not sure of a smart way to ensure the files are spaced properly on the created .txt file.

I've attached sample files. The sample .txt files are what I need to create from the values in my excel files.

Thanks in advance!

**Paul** · 11-02-2007, 03:45 PM

Hello pavemar,

To post an Excel file you must zip it first and then upload the zip file. If you have Windows XP you can right-click on your .xls file and choose Send To -> Compressed Folder, which will create a .zip file in the same folder as your .xls file.

Otherwise, you can use any number of .zip utilities available on the web (WinZip, PKZip, etc.).

**pavemar** · 11-02-2007, 09:17 PM

Pjoaquin,

Thanks for your help in uploading the files.

There are a lot of values in these files, and some of the manual apostrophe adding and concatenating seems cumbersome and like there must be a better way.

If someone could help me with the leading zeroes issue, I'm sure I can just text to columns to eliminate the decimal point for the assumed decimal point file.

having a nice neat .txt come from the excel is also an issue.

Thanks,

Marko

**pavemar** · 11-04-2007, 09:53 AM

Update - Hopefully someone can help me resolve this.

I can handle the decimal point with a text to columns, but only once all leading zeroes are in place. Simply Concatanating is a problem and what's hanging me up. When I Concatanate zeroes to a negative value, that minus sign remains in the middle and the file gets very messy very quick.

I can handle all spacing issues by just pushing the .xls file to a tab deliminated .txt and then doing find and replace to create spaces from the tabs.

Formatting these columns in Excel really has me hung up! Please help!