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mandrean/fix_csv_encoding_mac.md

Created September 1, 2015 14:15
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Fix broken CSV encoding in Excel for Mac
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fix_csv_encoding_mac.md

Fix broken CSV encoding in Excel for Mac

Problem

Excel for Mac can't handle UTF-8 encoded CSV files. Official statement by Microsoft:

Excel for Mac does not currently support UTF-8. If this is a feature you’d like to see in future versions of Office for Mac, be sure to send your feedback by clicking “Help” > “Send Feedback” [...]

Solution

Convert the UTF-8 file to UTF-16 Little Endian by running this one-liner in Terminal:

( printf "\xff\xfe" ; iconv -f utf-8 -t utf-16le INPUT_UTF8_FILE.csv ) > OUTPUT_UTF16_FILE.csv

Voila!

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