exporting area to csv

JSL

I would like to export a layer of areas to csv, but the only way to do that is to check the "Export Line and Area Features" in the export dialog box, otherwise it says that there are no point data to export. However, when I do that, I end up with an unwieldy string of position coordinates that continue on to succeeding lines and pretty much ruin any chance of using the file as a spreadsheet without extensive reworking.

I can't use the option to copy to the clipboard as text in the search function, because some of my data include commas in their attributes, which causes them to export into different columns than the other data. And because this layer is linked to other layers through the attributes that contain commas, it's not feasible to just go through the layer and replace all the commas with something else.

Attached is a kmz of the areas and a csv showing what happens during the export. Any help would be most appreciated.

stihl

Hi,

I'm not sure what data you're looking for exactly but I managed to got it in a nice excel format.

JSL

Yes, yours looks great. Would you mind giving me the details on how you exported the kmz to the csv? Did you select the layer and then click Export under the File tab? If so, what boxes did you tick off in the dialog panel?

Thanks for the help.

stihl

What I exactly did was:

Open the file > Go to 'File' > Export > Export Vector Format > CSV
In the new window set 'Field seperator' to 'Tab' and make sure only the following is checked:

• Export Area and Line Features
• Format Lat/Lon Coordinates with Position display format
• Include Column Names In first row of file
• Include Attributes Values

And click Ok.

Then open up a new instance of Office Excel (using v2007) > Go to the 'Data' tab > In the 'Get External data' part click on the button that says 'From Text' and navigate to the folder where you saved the file you just exported from GlobalMapper and select it.

In the new window that opens make sure that 'Original data type' is set to 'Delimited' and click Next.
In the next page set the 'Delimiters' to Tab and click on Finish and in the new window click on Ok.

That should leave you with the file that I submitted here. This is as far as I know the only way to get to a result like this.

My tip is to use that way of data importing into Excel to unscramble a lot of seemingly unusable txt files.

JSL

Works like a charm...thanks a million!