Formatting values for CSV File in vb.net

Question

Hello Exeperts,

I am creating a csv file from my vb.net application as shown below

Dim csvFile As String = My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\Test.csv"
        Dim outFile As IO.StreamWriter = My.Computer.FileSystem.OpenTextFileWriter(csvFile, False)

        outFile.WriteLine("Column 1, Column 2, Column 3")
        outFile.WriteLine("1.23, 4.56, 123456545666644565554")
        outFile.WriteLine("3.21, 6.54, 9.87")

But the value in the csv file appears like 1.25778E+12 for 123456545666644565554

How do I format it in vb.net. please help

Answer 1

Are you sure that in the raw text output the value 123456545666644565554 is output as 1.25778E+12? Are you perhaps seeing this in Microsoft Excel or some other application where you imported this data? Because the value 123456545666644565554 is enclosed in the string "1.23, 4.56, 123456545666644565554" I find it highly suspect that any formatting is being applied in the raw CSV file.

Answer 2

    outFile.WriteLine("Column 1, Column 2, Column 3")
    outFile.WriteLine("1.23, 4.56, '123456545666644565554")
    outFile.WriteLine("3.21, 6.54, 9.87")

Answer 3

Open your CSV file in Notepad instead of Excel, and I'm sure your number will appear correctly. The problem is not your CSV (CSV is just text anyway, it doesn't do any formatting), it's just that when you open it in Excel, it will display it in scientific format because the number if too long. If you change the Excel column formatting options to display as text format instead of number format, your number will appear correctly.

Answer 4

Store the values in a variable of the proper type and then convert it and write it to the file.

Dim d As Double = 1.234
Dim number As String = CStr(d)