How to Make a TXT Into a CSV

CSV stands for "comma separated values," a file format to store database entries and transfer data between databases. Lines or records in a CSV file consist of values separated with a comma. Microsoft Excel supports the CSV format and allows you to convert a text (TXT) file to a CSV file quickly. Moreover, you can manually create a CSV file using any text editor, such Windows Notepad.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Office Excel
• Text editor (such as Notepad)

Instructions

In Microsoft Office Excel

1. Open Microsoft Excel.

2. Press "Ctrl-O" and then browse your computer to the folder with the TXT file. Double-click on the file to start the Excel Text Import Wizard.

3. Click "Next" in the Text Import Wizard.

4. Check the box that corresponds to a text data delimiter such as a space or comma, and click "Next." Click "Finish" to import data to the Excel spreadsheet.

5. Click the menu option "File" and "Save As." Select the file type as "CSV (comma delimited)" using the drop-down list box, and click "Save" to convert text data to the CSV format.

Using a Text Editor (Notepad)

1. Start Notepad -- Windows' default text editor -- or any other text editor.

2. Press "Ctrl-O" to open a text file with data.

3. Go to the first line in the file and add double quotes around the first value, then type a comma. Continue this operation for the other values in the line. For example, if the text file contains the line 25 56.4 3, it is converted to "25", "56.4", "3"

4. Repeat Step 3 for all other lines in the file.

5. Press "Ctrl-S" and type a file name followed by the extension ".csv." Click "Save."

References

• File Info: File Extension CSV Details
• Microsoft Excel 2010 in Depth; Bill Jelen
• Windows Support: Notepad: Frequently Asked Questions