Date and amount format in exported CSV

Google Sheets
1

When I export my Transactions sheet as CSV (for import into another program), I run into two problems:

  1. Amount includes the $ sign and commas. eg $1,009.55
  2. Some date columns only have 2 digit years eg 1/1/25

I’d like to reformat the Transactions sheet to eliminate “$” and “,” from the Amount column and have all date columns formatted for 4 digit years. This would give me a “clean” CSV export.

Before I do this, am I missing any unintended consequences? Is there another way to assure a “clean” CSV export?

2

Good question, @rdsteed.

  • There shouldn’t be any issue with either of those changes. If, on the outside chance you have happen to run into anything after a few fills, you can revert your spreadsheet using Google Sheets’ version history.
  • If you’d rather not make these changes to your spreadsheet (which are super low risk), you COULD use a text editor after exporting to find and replace/clear all dollar signs and potentially address the year issue.

Good luck.

2 Likes
3

Thanks Randy.

For now, I’ve added a buffer sheet with different formatting. The only entry in the sheet is =arrayformula(Transactions!B1:ZZ) in cell A1. Doesn’t seem to slow it down (yet), but I only have a couple thousand transactions.

1 Like
4

This is the way.

If you are concerned about performance, you could just edit the array formula to B1:ZZ1 until you need to use it. (and then just remove the 1 before exporting)