tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:/discussions/problems/63368-import-security-prices-cannot-select-csvInfinite Kind: Discussion 2020-12-23T23:40:25Ztag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/486568632020-09-23T13:47:12Z2020-09-23T13:47:12ZImport Security Prices - cannot select csv<div><p>Hi Mark,</p>
<p>I'm not a Mac user but this should apply regardless...</p>
<p>Make sure that you have the proper permissions to access the folder housing the csv files. Try locating the csv files on your Desktop to see if this resolves the issue.</p>
<p>-Kevin N. (not a member of MD support)</p></div>-Kevin N.tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/486568632020-09-23T13:56:18Z2020-09-23T13:56:21ZImport Security Prices - cannot select csv<div><p>Thanks Kevin. Turns out it was a weird bug which went away after I restarted MoneyDance.</p>
<p>However, I'm having a problem importing the file now having selected it. I have two columns, with the headings Date and Close. I am using the date format DD/MM/YYYY which is the same as MoneyDance is setup to use. Example below:</p>
<p>Date,Close<br>
22/09/2020,72.17<br>
21/09/2020,71.19<br>
18/09/2020,72.63</p>
<p>MoneyDance gives the error: No Valid Data found in file. It does this regardless of where the file is loaded from.</p></div>marktag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/486568632020-09-23T14:22:00Z2020-09-23T14:22:00ZImport Security Prices - cannot select csv<div><p>Hi Mark,</p>
<p>Try opening the csv file in a simple word processor. (not a spreadsheet)</p>
<p>Check to see if maybe the Date is formatted other than DD/MM/YYYY. Also, make sure that forward slashes vs. periods as separators are consistent with Moneydance settings.</p>
<p>-Kevin N. (not a member of MD support)</p></div>-Kevin N.tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/486568632020-09-23T14:38:50Z2020-09-23T14:38:51ZImport Security Prices - cannot select csv<div><p>Turns out loading into a text editor showed nothing untoward, but in response to your reply I checked some more using the command line. The command 'more vwrl.csv' showed there was a special character at the beginning U<+FEFF>. Really surprising! Here's the explanation, I'm using Excel on the Mac and Excel loves messing with the first byte of CSV files:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/a-quick-tale-about-feff-the-invisible-character-cd25cd4630e7/">https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/a-quick-tale-about-feff-the-invis...</a></p>
<p>This UTF character is used to flag byte order in the file. Would be great if MoneyDance could ignore it.</p>
<p>I'm shaking my head at how Microsoft have managed to break such a simple file type... I've managed to import the file now.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p></div>marktag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/486568632020-09-23T15:05:27Z2020-09-23T15:05:27ZImport Security Prices - cannot select csv<div><p>Hi Mark,</p>
<p>Thanks for passing along your findings. I'll have to keep that one in mind.</p>
<p>I've seem some strange behavior before when importing csv files. One odd resolution that comes to mind is simply entering a dummy line in the first data row. e.g. 00/00/0000, 00.00 coinciding with Date, Amount. Doing so allowed the file to be imported into Moneydance. That was going to be my next suggestion. : )</p>
<p>-Kevin N. (not a member of MD support)</p></div>-Kevin N.tag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/486568632020-09-23T22:27:54Z2020-09-23T22:27:55ZImport Security Prices - cannot select csv<div><p>One final observation. In Excel for Mac Office 365 there are now TWO csv options when doing a 'save as'.</p>
<ol>
<li>Under 'Common Formats' there is CSV UTF-8 (Comma-delimited) (.csv)<br></li>
<li>Under 'Speciality Formats' there is Comma-separated Values (.csv)</li>
</ol>
<p>The first is the type that has the bad character that Moneydance can't process. The second is what the whole world considers a 'common' .csv file to be, except Microsoft it seems - saving using this 'speciality' option gives a standard CSV file that Moneydance can read.</p></div>marktag:infinitekind.tenderapp.com,2009-01-14:Comment/486568632020-09-23T23:31:21Z2020-09-23T23:31:21ZImport Security Prices - cannot select csv<div><p>Hi Mark,</p>
<p>Thanks for the additional information.<br>
I was weaned on Windows so this might be a Mac-Excel-specific issue. I haven't seen this particular issue in Excel for Windows but then again I'm still using Excel 2000. Microsoft may have 'improved' upon Excel to where it may now have such an issue. :\</p>
<p>-Kevin N. (not a member of MD support)</p></div>-Kevin N.