excel - CSV Exporting: Preserving leading zeros

Question

I'm working on a .NET application which exports CSV files to open in Excel and I'm having a problem with preserving leading zeros when the file is opened in Excel. I've used the method mentioned at http://creativyst.com/Doc/Articles/CSV/CSV01.htm#CSVAndExcel

This works great until the user decides to save the CSV file within Excel. If the file is opened again in Excel then the leading zeros are lost.

Is there anything I can do when generating the CSV file to prevent this from happening.

Answer 1

This is not a CSV issue.

This is Excel loving to play with CSV files.

Change the extension to something else.