Preserve product identifiers when editing CSV files
Keep an untouched copy of the original CSV. SKUs and barcodes are identifiers: leading zeros and every digit can matter.
Import without numeric conversion
- In a copy of the file, identify SKU, barcode, GTIN and other reference columns.
- In Excel, use Data → From Text/CSV rather than opening the CSV directly.
- Use the import/transformation controls to load identifier columns as Text before numeric conversion. Check the preview against the untouched source.
- If Excel has already shortened or rounded an identifier, return to the original and import again correctly. Changing its number format afterwards does not restore missing digits.
- Check identifiers beginning with zero and long references before editing other fields.
Example: a leading zero matters
An identifier such as 001234 is different from 1234. Preserve the complete text. Scientific notation can hide the actual value, and long numeric values can lose precision.
Check the saved file
Save a separate CSV copy in the format required by the intended import. Inspect the saved text without spreadsheet conversion and compare identifiers, headers, separators and representative values with the original before importing.
If values differ
Stop and recover the untouched source. Do not guess missing digits. See Microsoft’s guidance on leading zeros and large numbers; its import steps vary by Excel edition.
