Live demo

Try it: check a member export for damage from a spreadsheet program

This is the working version of the member export tutorial. It reads a CSV file that was opened and saved again in a spreadsheet program and lists cells to compare with the original export: ZIP codes that lost a leading zero, ID numbers in scientific notation or cut short, chapter codes turned into dates, day numbers in text columns, garbled characters, stray spaces and date columns with mixed formats. It changes nothing and writes no corrected file.

How this lab works

• Everything runs in your browser. The script is served from this site and the page makes no other request for your file. The kit also runs the same check offline.
• It lists and does not repair. A listed cell stays as it is in your file. Only the original export can say what a cell should hold, and the fix belongs in the member database or a new export.
• A short list is not a clean bill. The check looks for the damage listed above in the columns you name, and a file can be wrong in ways it cannot see.
• It cannot be sure of dates. A slash date such as 10/4/2021 can be day first or month first, so the page flags the column and leaves the reading to you. A day number is read on the 1900 system, which may be wrong for your file.
• A flag can be a real code. A chapter code such as May-5 looks like a date, and a four-digit postal code is flagged in a ZIP column even where four digits are normal.
• The download copies cells from your file. A value that starts with an equals sign, a plus sign, a minus sign or an at sign gets a leading apostrophe in findings.csv so that a spreadsheet program does not run it.
• The sample is made up. It holds 40 invented members with problems planted by us. It shows only that the code does what it says.
• It reads one CSV file of up to 5 MB. It does not read workbook files, and the table shows the first 500 cells while the download holds them all.

Starter kit

The starter kit holds this page to run on your own computer, the same check as a script, the made-up sample files, a settings worksheet and a log for comparing each listed cell with the original export. Free with your email through the form below; the download link appears after you subscribe.