Excel exports CSV - what to do about HTML entities?

Question

I have an Excel spreadsheet that I'm exporting as a CSV. HTML entities are being converted into a ?. Is there a way to convert the spreadsheet into a CSV and convert those HTML entities into the CSV compatible counterpart?

My ultimate goal is to import the CSV into a MySQL database using a PHP script. The consumers of the data will mostly be using it within a web environment, but that's not necessarily true always.

When I save from Excel to CSV, the entities are converted into `?` already. — StackOverflowNewbie, Aug 01 '14 at 00:38
I'm trying to simulate your issue but nothing s far. Could you share some of the characters that are converting into `?` — hex494D49, Aug 01 '14 at 01:03
The `em dash` character is the one I'm noticing right now. In the spreadsheet, it looks like `—` but turns to a `?` in the CSV. — StackOverflowNewbie, Aug 01 '14 at 01:21
your not actully meaning HTML entities, you don't have &.m.d.a.s.h.; in excel you have the utf8 or what ever encoding excel is using character — , Aug 01 '14 at 04:13

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

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If your Save As command is not working properly then you have some encoding problems. Check this question

edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

Community

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answered Aug 01 '14 at 04:20

LHristov

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Thanks. It was an encoding problem. I changed Excel to use UTF-8. All good now. – StackOverflowNewbie Aug 03 '14 at 22:01

Excel exports CSV - what to do about HTML entities?

1 Answers1