JSP data to CSV format conversion

[prasanna kumar]

Hello friends

I'm converting a report which is in jsp file to a Comma separated value format.
whats happenening is when the field is a String which has numeric values like "123456678979708" the csv format treats it as a number and the data is printed in the excel sheet in the scientific notation. like 1.2 E10. IS there anyway to specify it as a plain text so that the number prints as it is.
I tried several approaches
1) I tried inserting a space before the number in the jsp so that the excel will consider it as a plain string
2) I tried putting the data within quotes in the jsp --- did not work either
3) I tried putting a '/' character .. still did not work

Is there any work around for this??
thanks

arun

[Bear Bibeault]

You'll have to emit actual Excel format. I do not believe that there is anything you can do with a CSV file.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Or you have to use Excels Import menu, which let's you specify which columns are text and which are numbers.

[Paul Clapham]

In Excel, don't you see the actual number if you make the column wider?