Export of leading zero in zip code field

[heidi22]

Hi,

I ran up against a problem with trying to export a zip field that has a leading zero e.g. 01234 would export as 1234, I tried using Right ("00000" & zipCode; 5) but that didn't seem to work. My zipCode field is formatted as a text field. I am using filemaker pro 19 on a mac running os x monterey. Any help or feedback would be appreciated.

thanks,

Heidi

[comment]

What is the format of the exported file, and what is the application you're using to open it? 

IIRC, there were reports of this issue involving Excel as the target application. 

 

[heidi22]

On 1/31/2023 at 1:17 PM, comment said:

What is the format of the exported file, and what is the application you're using to open it? 

IIRC, there were reports of this issue involving Excel as the target application. 

 

The format of the export file is comma separated values and the app I was using to view it was Numbers which is an Apple app similar to Excel.

Heidi

[comment]

4 hours ago, heidi22 said:

The format of the export file is comma separated values and the app I was using to view it was Numbers

I see. I was able to reproduce the problem - which is entirely due to Numbers misinterpreting the data (same as Excel does). If you look at the exported .csv file, you will see that the original value is quoted and includes the original leading zero. 

You will get the correct result if you choose Excel Workbooks (.xlsx) as the intermediate format.
 

Alternatively, you could format the data in Numbers to display leading zeros:

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by comment

[heidi22]

Comment, thanks very much for your feedback.

Before I read your reply I did take a look at the CSV file to see if the actual zip field with the leading zeros was being exported correctly by Filemaker pro 19. And yes, it was, I used the Atom app and also use TexEdit which showed that zip field did have leading zeros and was ok.

At least I know what is going on now.

Heidi