Export to Csv has formatting issue for the negative numbers

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Is there any workaround for the below mentioned issue.

My data has both positive and negative numbers. When i export the data to csv in desktop, the number formatting is fine.

But the export to csv from the service, is converting negative numbers to text format and the postive numbers are in the number format (both from the same column).

Not sure if it is a bug. Can someone help, please.

Thanks,

Soumya

[Anonymous]

I was having the same problem, exporting negative numbers with Power BI Desktop to CSV, I was getting an ' (hyphen) at the beginning of each negative number. I uninstalled Power BI Desktop and reinstalled the previous version (May 2020 Update (2.81.5831.621) - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/desktop-latest-update-archive). Now it works. my suggestion is to use the previous version until the problem is not fixed.

[v-yingjl]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Based on my test, it could not be a bug but a limitation of exporting to csv file, plesase consider this limitation:

When exporting to .csv certain characters will be escaped with a leading '.

In my environment, both of exporting to csv files are the same in power bi desktop and power bi service. The negative numbers will have a ' leading in the csv file, after you click the specific number in the formula bar of the column, it will have an error warning like this:

The negative numbers are stored as text and you can convert them to number and save it normally.

Best Regards,
Yingjie Li

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[amyklh]

This is not an acceptable fix.  Not realistic in real world application. Users commonly export data to perform calculations on values.  Needs to be fixed ASAP.  It IS a bug.  It worked previously and now it is broken.

[Anonymous]

I could not replicate this issue when exporting to csv from desktop. It is only occuring when exporting from desktop.

[Anonymous]

Hi , Did you get a solution to your issue, we are also facing the concern

[Anonymous]

It looks like a similar issue has been reported and microsoft is working on the fix. 

Please find more details and future updates here - 

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Export-to-CSV-from-service-is-converting-negative-values-to-...

[Cpgbi]

Same issue here, it just started happening and costing me a ton of time. It worked fine last month, has to be a bug...

[aj1973]

@Cpgbi 

If it worked last month and now it means that between now and then there was an update somewhere that caused the incompatibility. The newest version of Power bi desktop and the latest Microsoft Excel version should give the best result.

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

It would appear to me to be a possible bug.

Just to confirm that your data type on the column is set to a number format?