Title: Excel export data type
Last modified: November 10, 2022

---

# Excel export data type

 *  Resolved [kebhin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kebhin/)
 * (@kebhin)
 * [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/excel-export-data-type/)
 * Hi
 * I have a table with a column that is char(8) but all the data are 8 digit numbers,
   some of them with leading 0s
    When this is displayed in a data publication all
   is as you would expect, but if you use the Excel export button, the generated
   Excel file treats this data as a number, but the rows that have leading 0s are
   displayed as text, e.g. ‘03753712 Is there a way of fixing this, or is this an
   inherent Excel bug? I know you can manually correct the cell format in Excel 
   but it doesn’t otherwise need any intervention so this would be an inconvenient
   break in automation
 * Thank you
    Kebhin

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Plugin Contributor [Kim L](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimmyx/)
 * (@kimmyx)
 * [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/excel-export-data-type/#post-16185716)
 * Hi [@kebhin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kebhin/),
 * Yes, unfortunately, Excel attempts to guess what your data is especially if from
   an external origin (like a database export), and then sets that format.
 * You can try the methods outlined in this [article](https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/stop-excel-convert-text-to-number-date-format-csv-file/)
   to prevent Excel from converting text data to numbers.
 * Let us know if this helps!

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Excel export data type’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/wp-data-access/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3299063)
 * [WP Data Access – App Builder for Tables, Forms, Charts, Maps & Dashboards](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-data-access/)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-data-access/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-data-access/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-data-access/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wp-data-access/reviews/)

 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Kim L](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimmyx/)
 * Last activity: [3 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/excel-export-data-type/#post-16185716)
 * Status: resolved