How to keep leading zeros when opening CSV file in VBA - vba

Question

I have a VBA code that quickly transfer data from CSV files, but unfortunately exclude leading zeros (For example 000123 is converted to 123)
Filename = "c:\text.csv"
Dim wbI As Workbook, wbO As Workbook
Dim wsI As Worksheet
Set wbI = ThisWorkbook
Set wsI = wbI.Sheets("Temp")
Filename = "c:\text.csv"
Set wbO = Workbooks.Open(Filename)
wbO.Sheets(1).Cells.Copy wsI.Cells
wbO.Close SaveChanges:=False
I have tried to add the following after opening the csv file > Cells.NumberFormat = "#"
Set wbO = Workbooks.Open(Filename)
Cells.NumberFormat = "#"
wbO.Sheets(1).Cells.Copy wsI.Cells
wbO.Close SaveChanges:=False
Unfortunately, it is not working and the problem I see is that once the file opens already is missing the leading zeros
Is it possible to open the file without affecting the leading zeros and show all the data as text to maintain the leading zeros?

Answer 1

Try this way, please:
Sub testOpenWithLZeroTxt()
Dim Filename As String, wbI As Workbook, wbO As Workbook, wsI As Worksheet
Dim arrTXT, nrCol As Long, arr(), i As Long, sep As String, lineSep As String
Dim allTxt As String, txtStr As Object, fileTxt As String, fs As Object, f As Object, ts As Object
Set wbI = ThisWorkbook
Set wsI = wbI.Sheets("Temp")
Filename = "c:\text.csv"
fileTxt = Split(Filename, ".")(0) & ".txt" 'create a helper txt file using the csv string content
Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
allTxt = fs.OpenTextFile(Filename, 1).ReadAll 'reed the csv file content
fs.CreateTextFile fileTxt
Set f = fs.GetFile(fileTxt)
Set ts = f.OpenAsTextStream(2, -2)
ts.write allTxt 'write the csv content in a newly created txt file
ts.Close
'Check the number of text file columns:_______
sep = vbLf ' if not working you can try vbCrLf. It works so on your file
lineSep = "," 'it my be vbTab, ";" etc. It works so on your file
arrTXT = Split(allTxt, sep)
nrCol = UBound(Split(arrTXT(0), lineSep))
'_____________________________________________
ReDim arr(nrCol) 'redim the format array
For i = 0 To nrCol
arr(i) = Array(i + 1, 2) 'fill the format array with variant for TEXT Format!
Next
'open the helper txt file as you need:
Workbooks.OpenText Filename:=fileTxt, origin:=437, startRow:=1, _
DataType:=xlDelimited, Tab:=False, Comma:=True, FieldInfo:=arr()
Set wbO = ActiveWorkbook
'wbO.Sheets(1).cells.Copy wsI.Range("A1") 'copy the content
wbO.Close SaveChanges:=False 'close the file
Kill fileTxt 'kill helper txt file
End Sub
Edited:
I changed the code philosophy. It will firstly read the csv content in a string variable and create a txt file using the obtained string and open it as text, which certainly should work. It will work for any number of columns in the csv file.

Answer 2

The line break in your csv file is unix LF. This corresponds to chr(10).
Since the number of columns in the first row and the number of columns in the next row are inconsistent, a little bias was used. An array was created by doubling the number of columns in the first row.
Sub test()
Dim Ws As Worksheet
Dim Fn As String
Dim Arr As Variant
Fn = "Example.csv"
'Fn = "c:\text.csv"
Set Ws = Sheets("Temp")
Arr = getDatFromCsv(Fn)
With Ws
.Cells.NumberFormat = "#"
.Cells = Empty
.Range("a1").Resize(UBound(Arr, 1) + 1, UBound(Arr, 2) + 1) = Arr
End With
End Sub
Function getDatFromCsv(strFn As String) As Variant
Dim vR() As String
Dim i As Long, r As Long, j As Integer, c As Integer
Dim objStream As Object
Dim strRead As String
Dim vSplit, vRow
Dim s As String
Set objStream = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
With objStream
.Charset = "utf-8"
.Open
.LoadFromFile strFn
strRead = .ReadText
.Close
End With
vSplit = Split(strRead, Chr(10)) 'Unix Lf ~~> chr(10)
r = UBound(vSplit)
c = UBound(Split(vSplit(0), ",", , vbTextCompare))
ReDim vR(0 To r, 0 To c * 2)
For i = 0 To r
vRow = Split(vSplit(i), ",", , vbTextCompare)
'If UBound(vRow) = c Then 'if it is empty line, skip it
For j = 0 To UBound(vRow)
vR(i, j) = vRow(j)
Next j
'End If
Next i
getDatFromCsv = vR
Set objStream = Nothing
End Function
Result Image

Answer 3

Use OpenText method instead.
The most important parameter is FieldInfo. You need to pass:
an array containing parse information for individual columns of data. The interpretation depends on the value of DataType. When the data is delimited, this argument is an array of two-element arrays, with each two-element array specifying the conversion options for a particular column. The first element is the column number (1-based), and the second element is one of the XlColumnDataType constants specifying how the column is parsed.
In other words, every column with leading zeros, has to be defined as xlTextFormat.
I'd suggest to record macro. ;) An option to load text data, you'll find under Data tab -> ... -> From text/CSV