Hi,

When exporting survey results as CSV the results appear to be semi-colon separated in version 3.9.0, where as in version 2.72.5 the results were comma separated as you'd expect in CSV file.

Is this a deliberate change? If so why, as it would seem to make it invalid CSV? Is there any way I can make Limesurvey export as an actual Comma Separated Value file?

I'm also told by a user that End Of Line is now CR LF rather than LF, although that is not a change that makes it invalid CSV in itself.

I think "can I do this with Limesurvey" is probably not the best forum for this. I guess "Development" would be the better forum. I can confirm that the separator is now ";".

If it is on purpose, it is probably because most people use Excel and Excel CSV has ";" as separator. But it might be just a mistake/bug.

I'll move this to the development section, because there you'll probably find more people that are involved in this than here.

Err, CSV means Comma Separated Values so Comma is the separator and Excel conforms to this standard. Part of the problem is if you double click on the Limesurvey 3.9.0 created CSV file it opens in Excel and Excel doesn't understand the semi-colons instead of commas. This all used to work in Excel with Limesurvey 2.72.5.

As far as I know, Excel works with semi colon when creating CSVs, which has caused trouble from time to time here in the forum, because people used Excel and it had the wrong separator. But I might remember wrong.

I just tested it with Excel and saved a spread sheet as CSV (coma separated). And voila, it was saved separated by semicolon.

trimbs wrote: Err, CSV means Comma Separated Values so Comma is the separator and Excel conforms to this standard.

Excel conforms to the list separator (mostly comma or semicolon) set in the language and region setting when using windows. Depending on your settings it may not work when doubleclicking the file.
You better use LibreOffice or CSVed ( csved.sjfrancke.nl ) for importing and editing CSV under the windows platform.
I won't rule out an issue in LimeSurvey when creating CSV.

Thanks very much for clearing that up regarding Excel, Jelo

Although I realise now that this thread has gotten away from my initial question: why has Limesurvey changed the separator in its CSV exports of survey responses from comma to semi-colon? Without an option as far as I can tell to do CSV with a comma separator?

Or perhaps more to the point: now that the CSV separator has changed in Limesurvey from a comma to a semi-colon, can someone confirm this deliberate and will stay this way? And its not going to be changed back to comma at some point?

@trimbs, please file a bug report and provide a link here.

Although I realise now that this thread has gotten away from my initial question: why has Limesurvey changed the separator in its CSV exports of survey responses from comma to semi-colon? Without an option as far as I can tell to do CSV with a comma separator?

Yes, I agree. It is strange that it has changed. For years we needed to explain to people that the MS Excel way is the wrong way and now LS is going down this route. I would say it was an error. But I could also imagine that there was a decision made to change it to the Excel way, because most people use Excel. No matter if it is the wrong specification or not.
As Tpartner says: the only way to find that out is to file a bug report and see what the response is.

tpartner wrote: @trimbs, please file a bug report and provide a link here.

Yes, please !


1: we don't have to update this without spoking with all Dev … and user
2: it's not because excel is a dumb tool we must be dumb ourself


And CSV as his standard : www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4180.txt

Thanks all, I've reported this as a bug.

bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=13747