Excel Warning on Overwriting Data in Output 8760 CSV File When Separating Fields

[kjs55]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Export output 8760 .csv file via PVsyst simulation

2. Open in Excel

3. Click "Text to Columns" > Delimited > Semicolon > Finish

WARNING MESSAGE: "There's already data here. Do you want to replace it?"

This is b/c there is data in Column B. There should only be (delimiter-separated) data in Column A. Please fix this formatting issue in the output 8760 .csv file. Thanks!

[Bruno Wittmer]

This is most likely an interference between PVsyst settings, Excel/Windows settings and the variant name:

For the output file of PVsyst you can select the column separator, which by default is a semicolon.
In Excel and Windows you can define the default list separator, which often is a comma.

If both separators are the same, double-clicking on the CSV file will open that file in Excel, and detect properly the columns.

If the separators are different, you need to do the 'Text to columns' conversion as explained in the original post. If the variant (or project) name contains once ore more times the separator that is recognized by Excel, you will get additional columns when opening the file, with the subsequent warning message.

The solution therefore is either to have the same list separators in PVsyst and Execel/Windows, or to avoid having the Excel/Windows separator character in the variant (and/or projec)t name.

[kjs55]

Thanks. In my original post, I used the PVsyst default, semicolon separator. Indeed, when I switch to the comma separator, it opens properly in Excel. I'm still a little surprised that, when using semicolon, only one single row (Row 6) has data which spills out of Column A into columns B, C, etc. when you open the file in Excel. Namely, I'm surprised the design of Row 6 is this:

Existing semicolon design (Row 6):

Simulation variant;US-Project_name_carport2_rev07.VCF;13/05/22 14h49;tilt3, pitch50,YL530, unlimited sheds, 1340, bifacial albedo 0.1, rev07;

Instead of this (proposed semicolon new design) (Row 6):

Simulation variant;US-Project_name_carport2_rev07.VCF;13/05/22 14h49;tilt3;pitch50;YL530;unlimited sheds;1340;bifacial albedo 0.1;rev07;

(Note that all I did was replace some of the commas with semicolons & eliminate some spaces.)

In the proposed semicolon new design, everything works well. In the existing semicolon design, you get a warning in Excel and data gets overwritten when separating the columns by semicolon.