line breaks in login notes field causes problem for csv export

ranilev

I need to export my logins to csv (or tab delimited format). When I tried to do this, many of the records were messed up. I noticed that all of the records that had problems included notes fields that contained line breaks. On the CSV file, when I imported into Excel, each line break within a note became a new spreadsheet row. Is this a known limitation? Is there a workaround? Do I need to eliminate line breaks from all login notes?

Thanks

Rob 1234

I have noticed the same thing with the tab delimited export that I use. I tried delimited hoping it would work better. Because of that, I am not able to keep much of anything in the notes field. I usually just keep it blank, and I wish I could use it for more.

svondutch

1Password is exporting CSV by the book. Each record is one line, but fields may contain embedded line-breaks so a record may span more than one line. The rule here is: a field that contains embedded line-breaks must be surrounded by double quotes and this is exactly what 1Password export is doing.

From wikipedia: "line-terminators can be embedded as data within fields, so software must recognize quoted line-separators in order to correctly assemble an entire record from perhaps multiple lines."

I'm not sure why Excel does not seem to support line-breaks within quoted fields.

MrC

FYI: I tested this yesterday and had no issues importing with either LibreOffice and the OS X's Numbers app. Exporting worked correctly with both CSV and Tab Separated text. Embedded \n chars were preserved and imported fine.

ranilev

Here's what ended up working: I renamed the 1password export file from filename.txt to filename.csv, then opened in Excel and it opened correctly.

khad

Great news! Thanks for letting us know that everything is working well. :)

If we can be of further assistance, please let us know. We are always here to help!

dmares

it appears from my minimal testing that using the .csv file format will work when trying to "open" the file in Excel.
However, Excel can also import data from text. (completely different menu).
This mode of opening or importing data does not seem to work. (its probably an excel problem).
I have not been able to get the "open" to work with the tab delimited version either directly thru an open, or import data from text.

khad

Do you have trouble opening the file with other applications? As you mentioned, it does sound like it may be an issue exclusive to Excel.