TableSafe workflow guide

Preserve leading zeros when copying a web table

An order code such as 001027 is an identifier, even though it contains only digits. If a spreadsheet imports it as a number, it can become 1027. Changing the cell’s format afterward cannot recover the original zeros unless you already know the correct length.

A practical check

1. Capture or paste a rectangular table, including a header row. Check that every row has the same number of columns.
2. Leave ID, postcode, order reference and account-code columns as text. Convert only columns whose numeric meaning you actually need.
3. Export an XLSX with text cell types. Reopen it and check both a short code with leading zeros and a long reference.

Example

Original ID: 001027
Text cell in XLSX: 001027
Numeric conversion: rejected when it would discard leading zeros

Know the scope

CSV contains characters, not spreadsheet cell types. A CSV reader may infer numeric types despite quotation marks. A typed spreadsheet avoids that guess. TableSafe’s free CSV sample is useful for checking the shape of a table, but XLSX is the safer choice for identifiers. TableSafe rejects merged cells rather than silently shifting values into another column.

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