# Importing Pipe Delimited files into Excel



## tomeg63 (Apr 16, 2007)

Here is my issue. I have a pipe delimited file that I am trying to import as TEXT into Excel. I go through the import wizard and I can get the data to appear in Excel but I've noticed that some of the columns have spaces padding the front of their cells. 

If I import the same file as fixed width and perform the manual column breaks, and again import all columns as TEXT, the cells are NOT padded with spaces. 

Is there a way to utilize the delimited process but NOT get the spaces in front of the values in the cells?

I'm using a delimited process because the data file contains over 32 columns of informations and I don't want to spend extra time having to scroll through the file to make sure the column breaks are all in their correct positions. 

Any advise would be appreciated. 

Thank you.


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

You could go through your text file and "replace" all pipes with a TAB, then import it as a TAB delimited file.


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## Zack Barresse (Jul 25, 2004)

You could download/install ASAP Utilities and use its features to remove leading/trailing spaces.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

if you use the | as other delimiter when import - there should be no problem with the columns - if you want to get rid of spaces - in column 40 you could use =trim(a1) and copy that 32 columns and however many rows down - that will get rid of all the spaces 

then from where you types =trim(a1) select all the columns and rows with the formula again and copy and past special value - then you have the data with out spaces and as values

then delete A1 the original data you copied in

there may be an eaiser way - but that would be my approach


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