Numbers is incorrectly stripping leading tabs on importing a CSV

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Numbers is incorrectly stripping leading tabs on importing a CSV

Generally you can import CSV files into Numbers without any issues.

In my latest import the last field may have leading tabs before the text. Numbers deals with these OK by keeping the tab character in the cell however if the text has a number anywhere in the text string Numbers is stripping the leadings tabs, which is not what I expect or want.

The same CSV imports as expected into Excel.

It is either Numbers trying to be too clever thinking the etc string with numbers is a numerical field or it is just a bug.

Does anyone know of a way to fix this?

Thank you for your help.

Mac Studio, macOS 15.2

Posted on Jan 29, 2025 2:06 PM

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Answer 1

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Badunit

Level 7

30,366 points

Jan 31, 2025 6:35 PM in response to iwaddo

Numbers is trying to be too smart. I truly wish we could turn that off. The best I have been able to do is patch together a script/Shortcut that will create a new Numbers document and import the CSV into that document cell-by-cell with everything formatted as text (numbers, dates, everything will be text formatted). From there you can copy all the cells and use Paste and Match Style to paste the results into a pre-formatted table in your actual document.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9dc65cd245f6466696f4d2ea97bfc252

It is not allowed to have a carriage return in a "cell" of the CSV with this shortcut. The shortcut will treat it as the end of the row. One day I may fix this issue.

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Numbers is incorrectly stripping leading tabs on importing a CSV

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