excel - Handling Semicolons in CSV to Prevent Splitting Across Cells in Go - Stack Overflow

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I am generating a CSV file in a Go HTTP handler and sending it as a response. Some of my text fields contain semicolons (;), which causes issues when opening the file in applications like Excel. The data is getting split into multiple cells instead of appearing in a single cell.

For example, in my case:

• The name field contains google;gmail
• The URL field contains ;gle/

Here’s my current Go code:

func routeReferencesCrossrefDownloadPost(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    var req DownloadRequest
    if err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&req); err != nil {
        fmt.Println("JSON Decode Error:", err)
        http.Error(w, "Invalid request", http.StatusBadRequest)
        return
    }

    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/csv")
    w.Header().Set("Content-Disposition", `attachment; filename="search_items.csv"`)

    writer := csv.NewWriter(w)
    defer writer.Flush()

    writer.Write([]string{"#", "Name", "URL"})

    name := "google;gmail"
    URL := ";gle/"
    for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
        writer.Write([]string{
            fmt.Sprintf("%d", i+1),
            name,
            URL,
        })
    }
}

The semicolon in name and URL is causing the text to split across multiple cells instead of staying within one. I would prefer not to change any CSV settings in system. If I wrap values in double quotes ("), I should not see them explicitly in the CSV file when opened.

How can I ensure that values containing semicolons remain in the same cell without requiring the user to modify any settings in their CSV viewer?

I am generating a CSV file in a Go HTTP handler and sending it as a response. Some of my text fields contain semicolons (;), which causes issues when opening the file in applications like Excel. The data is getting split into multiple cells instead of appearing in a single cell.

For example, in my case:

• The name field contains google;gmail
• The URL field contains https://www.goo;gle/

Here’s my current Go code:

func routeReferencesCrossrefDownloadPost(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    var req DownloadRequest
    if err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&req); err != nil {
        fmt.Println("JSON Decode Error:", err)
        http.Error(w, "Invalid request", http.StatusBadRequest)
        return
    }

    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/csv")
    w.Header().Set("Content-Disposition", `attachment; filename="search_items.csv"`)

    writer := csv.NewWriter(w)
    defer writer.Flush()

    writer.Write([]string{"#", "Name", "URL"})

    name := "google;gmail"
    URL := "https://www.goo;gle/"
    for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
        writer.Write([]string{
            fmt.Sprintf("%d", i+1),
            name,
            URL,
        })
    }
}

The semicolon in name and URL is causing the text to split across multiple cells instead of staying within one. I would prefer not to change any CSV settings in system. If I wrap values in double quotes ("), I should not see them explicitly in the CSV file when opened.

How can I ensure that values containing semicolons remain in the same cell without requiring the user to modify any settings in their CSV viewer?

• excel
• csv
• go
• formatting

Share Improve this question Follow edited Mar 13 at 11:57 kostix 55.7k1414 gold badges102102 silver badges186186 bronze badges asked Mar 13 at 8:50 user275472user275472 9755 bronze badges 3

• 2 Use package encoding/csv to generate your "Excel CSV" setting the sep to ; and let ecoding/csv handle the quoting. – Volker Commented Mar 13 at 9:44
• [1/2] What @Volker said. I would add one minor input: a CSV is not "a standard" in the sense of some "officially published" thing produced by some standardization body. The RFC 4180 defining what a CSV document is came quite a bit later after CSV as a concept has been implemented by numerous pieces of SW—with each implementing it slightly differently. Basically, the core idea of CSV as a concept is that you have "lines of text" consisting of "fields" separated by a specially dedicated character. Both the producer of CSV-formatted data and its… – kostix Commented Mar 13 at 12:01
• 1 [2/2] …consumers are supposed to agree (have the same idea) of 1) how the lines are terminated; 2) which character (or a set of them!) separate fields and 3) what method, if at all, is used to allow characters which separate lines and fields to be part of field values. The encoding/csv package provides enough flexibility for dealing with various consumers: it allows specifying of the field separator and force using of CR+LF combos to terminate lines instead of single LFs. And it uses double quotes to deal with problematic field values. All this should cover 99% of the use cases, so try it. – kostix Commented Mar 13 at 12:06

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 0

You will need to ensure that your output explicitly quotes fields, and that your consumers readers are configured to understand quotes, and that the correct separator is configured as well.

Quoting CSV in Golang

As you want to quote the CSV output, you may want to look at existing answers, e.g. Always quote csv values has a number of example answers that will allow you to write your module so as to ensure quotes are used, but as you say, don't show up explicitly in the CSV when opened.

The problem stems from encoding/csv being a very simplistic writer and not handling this for the caller. You need to use a different module or extend the encoding/csv module to be able to quote as you require.

Consumer expectations

I understand the tension between doing more for the user, and having the user do more. Your question suggests that semi-colons have been marked as a separator in Excel, but your users need to have commas set explicitly.

Excel outlines two ways to import CSV. Naively opening the data through the Open dialog is the least reliable, and often results in data being mapped incorrectly.

The second method "Import a text file by connecting to it" will provide a reliable import, but requires some user knowledge and intervention to calibrate that import correctly, e.g. selecting separator and field types where their integrity is important, e.g. number/date formatting.

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