Leading zero in field

[catflap]

Hi




Importing a csv file into Excel where one of the fields has a leading zero is an old problem. Excel treats the field as a number and removes the zero.


There are several ways to fix this once you are in Excel - I favour putting in an apostrophe to force text instead of number format, for example - however, I'm trying to come up with a different solution.


I have a colleague who works with some mail merge software which can only accept csv files and works in the same way as Excel, ie dropping the leading zero. I don't have access to their software, but I figured if I could get Excel to accept it, then their software would work as well.


What I'm wondering is if there is any character I could put in at the start of the field which would force Excel to treat it as text, but which would not be visible when printed.


It could appear as a space. I've tried adding ASCII 255 for example, which is a non-breaking space, thinking if it wasn't the usual ASCII 32 space it might encourage Excel to treat it as text, but no luck.


Does anyone have any ideas on this one?


Thanks for reading!