[RESOLVED] importing scientific numbers

mrbaseball34

I am importing large CSV files, for some reason one column for ean13 values,
the values in the file are, for some reason showing in Excel as:
6.63023E+11 and 7.31413E+11 even though the real values In the csv file are:
663023000541 and 731413030574

This is how we currently import the values:

      $ean13 = addslashes($line[30]);
      $ean13 = str_replace('+', 'plus', $ean13);
      $ean13 = str_replace('.', 'DOT', $ean13);

But, for some reason the values ending up in the table are: (13 char field)
6DOT63023Eplu and 7DOT31413Eplu

they should import as 663023000541 and 731413030574

How can I import these values correctly?

big_nerd

You can use sprintf to convert the values,

Although it seems to be rounding, I am not an expert at Scientific Notation.

<?php
echo sprintf('&#37;.f','7.31413E+11');
// output 731413000000.000000
echo sprintf('%.0f','7.31413E+11');
// output 731413000000
// Above is rounded.
?>

%.f as far as I know displays the number as a float.

I hope this helps..

I am not sure where you got the actual numbers from, and if you are using excel to export them, maybe try changing the cell data type?

mrbaseball34

Well, I found out that the most probable reason was the former developer was taking the import file, opening it in Excel and saving it again. Excel will save the scientific notation if you don't change the format of the column, even when you save as csv.

The export file is downloaded directly from a supplier so the file, itself, is ok. I rewrote the routine to download the file using ftp_get in php instead of doing it manually, like he was doing.

This saves time and I can schedule it using a cron job. Thanks for looking at this even though I'm not going to need your help on this one.

MB34

Weedpacket

Yah; Excel being "helpful" ... "Ooh, this looks like a number, I'll format it as a number. It's a lot of digits so I'll have to round it off."

I think this is one reason why a lot of serial numbers and SKUs these days start with letters.