Re: query tool csv/txt output file extension choice and encoding

All,

Sorry for inserting my opinion here, but I am sick of programs that make apologies for the fact the Microsoft Office is broken.  Outlook can’t display HTML, so people have to jump through hoops, to turn HTML into Vector Markup Language (VML).  Excel assumes all files ending in ‘csv’ are comma separated.  Office won’t open its own documents if they have the wrong extension.

PGAdmin should simply state that Excel is broken, and not break LibreOffice, Numbers and every other program that correctly assumes that just because a file is a ‘csv’ doesn’t provide enough information to know how to import it without asking.

On Feb 5, 2021, 1:25 PM -0500, Alain Dupeyron <adupeyron(at)yahoo(dot)fr>, wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm using frequently the download file function in the query tool. In previous version of PgAdmin4, I select field separator ";"  and file was always generated with extension .csv and can be opened directly by Excel in one click with correct columns !
>
> Now I have always .txt extension (since 4.28 or before, I'm in PgAdmin 4.29 for now) but the .txt file do not open directly in excel
> I Have to launch excel and open it but colums are not detected in my French excel, I have to convert data...(idem with TAB separator)...fastidious !
> Or I have to save the file from the browser, then navigate to file, then I change its extension to .csv, confirm and then the file is opened correctly...fastidious !
>
> When I choose field separator "," in PgAdmin, then file is generated with extension .csv but colums are not detected in French Excel (comma is the decimal number separator in France...)
>
> => How can I "force" or choose in Pgadmin to always generate file with extension .csv independently of selected field separator ?
>
>
> 2nd point: Can we choose file encoding of generated file too ? it's in UTF-8 now (was plateform dependant in PgAdmin 3?)
> accentuated characters are not detected corretly by french excel (expecting by default my Windows-1252 plateform encoding), I have to import file in excel and to select the right utf8 encoding in a huge encoding list...
>
> Other approach : copy from query result then paste in excel and save the file myself...
> accent are ok but column header are missing, I need to select the option on each new query tab "copy with header" => there is no pgAdmin preferences for that point ? (was in PgAdmin 3)
>
>
> Yes we can blame Excel/Windows and csv format but it's the only download format proposed here  for spreadsheet tool and only theses 2-3 configurations are missing to parametrize it as expected by end user platform...
>
> Thanks