FEATURE REQUEST: set CSV "Sep=^" when exporting query result

[zitot]

Hi, I'm back again with a feature request. This time: allow user to set an optional separator value in a CSV file when exporting from a SQL query.

I don't know about other operating systems and programs, but excel on Windows recognizes "Sep=^" (where ^ is a delimiter character) so that you skip the import wizard when opening a CSV. (It just opens normally).

CSV is a delimited text file that uses a comma to separate values (many implementations of CSV import/export tools allow other separators to be used; for example, the use of a "Sep=^" row as the first row in the *.csv file will cause Excel to open the file expecting caret "^" to be the separator instead of comma ","). Simple CSV implementations may prohibit field values that contain a comma or other special characters such as newlines. More sophisticated CSV implementations permit them, often by requiring " (double quote) characters around values that contain reserved characters (such as commas, double quotes, or less commonly, newlines). Embedded double quote characters may then be represented by a pair of consecutive double quotes,[25] or by prefixing a double quote with an escape character such as a backslash (for example in Sybase Central).

[emphasis added]

I would personally use Sep=,

Example - save this to a csv file on your pc, then open it with excel. it should skip the import process and instantly open the file without needing to go through the typical import wizard

Sep=,
"Column1","Column2"
"Value1","Value2"
"Value3","Value4"

This could be made as either a Comment Directive or a user wide preference. Given that we already have a bunch of Excel specific settings under Files->Format, maybe add an experimental preference for CSV delimiter in there?

 

[Marco Kalter]

I have added this to the list of enhancement requests.