Windows – How to convert Excel file with multiple sheets to a set of CSV files

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I have an Excel file with 20 sheets on it. Is there a way to quickly convert the file into 20 CSV files – one for each sheet?

I can do it manually of course, but I'll have to be processing these files a lot, so it would be great to have some kind of command line utility (or even Excel command line switches).

Best Answer

The method by vembutech is a definitely a more polished solution. Here is a lightweight VBA macro that would export all the sheets from one workbook.

Goes in the active workbooks folder all names are workbookname_sheetname.csv

Sub exportcsv()
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim path As String

path = ActiveWorkbook.path & "\" & Left(ActiveWorkbook.Name, InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Name, ".") - 1)
For Each ws In Worksheets
    ws.Activate
    ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:=path & "_" & ws.Name & ".csv", FileFormat:=xlCSV, CreateBackup:=False
Next
End Sub

EDIT:

For the comment. The original macro simply uses the save as function (which is sort of like closing the original). If you want to do this while leaving the original open you need to copy to a new workbook, save, close the new workbook.

Sub exportcsv()
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim path As String

path = ActiveWorkbook.path & "\" & Left(ActiveWorkbook.Name, InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Name, ".") - 1)
For Each ws In Worksheets
    ws.Copy
    ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:=path & "_" & ws.Name & ".csv", FileFormat:=xlCSV, CreateBackup:=False
    ActiveWorkbook.Close False
Next
End Sub

Related Solutions

Excel – Edit csv file with Excel without reformatting

A blank line in a CSV file means it doesn't conform to the syntax that is used in most—if not all—CSV implementations. You can read about that in RFC 4180:

Each line should contain the same number of fields throughout the file.

What Excel ouputs is actually the correct representation of a blank row, since a CSV file always has the same number of columns. You won't be able to use another CSV editor, since they'll all either output standardized CSV format or might not even be able read your file properly. They might skip the blank line, or output it like Excel.

Here are some possible solutions:

You can't change the way Excel saves CSV files. If you want to break a butterfly on a wheel you need to write VBA code to manually export your file.
Change the original CSV files so they don't contain blank rows.

If you need blank rows to identify non-contiguous data or separate tables, consider creating separate CSV files for each part, or making the table identifier another column in the CSV to get a proper tabular representation.
Change your code to work with Excel's representation and thus follow the standards that have been established for CSV. Simply treat a row with empty fields as empty.
Modify the CSV files in any plain text editor (Notepad, etc.) to remove the offending lines.

Excel – Merge CSV files to one Excel file in different sheets

Create Macro:

Sub ListAllFile3()

 Application.DisplayAlerts = False

Dim strFile As String
strFile = Dir("C:\CSVFile\*.csv", vbNormal)

Do While Len(strFile) > 0       
Set ws = Worksheets.Add
ws.Name = strFile

With Worksheets(strFile).QueryTables.Add(Connection:="TEXT;C:\CSVFile\" & strFile, Destination:=Range"$A$1"))
        .FieldNames = True
        .RowNumbers = False

        .FillAdjacentFormulas = False
        .PreserveFormatting = True
        .RefreshOnFileOpen = False
        .RefreshStyle = xlInsertDeleteCells
        .SavePassword = False
        .SaveData = True
        .AdjustColumnWidth = True
        .RefreshPeriod = 0
        .TextFilePromptOnRefresh = False
        .TextFileStartRow = 1
        .TextFileParseType = xlDelimited
        .TextFileTextQualifier = xlTextQualifierDoubleQuote
        .TextFileConsecutiveDelimiter = False
        .TextFileTabDelimiter = True
        .TextFileSemicolonDelimiter = True
        .TextFileCommaDelimiter = True
        .TextFileSpaceDelimiter = False
        .TextFileColumnDataTypes = Array(1, 1)
        .TextFileTrailingMinusNumbers = True
        .Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False

    End With

strFile = Dir
Loop

 Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

Best Answer

EDIT:

Related Solutions

Excel – Edit csv file with Excel without reformatting

Excel – Merge CSV files to one Excel file in different sheets

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