CSV
How to Detect the Encoding of a CSV File Before You Load It
Four encoding detectors gave four different answers on the same six files. See which ones to trust, how to cross check them, and when only the sender knows.
7 min read
Tag
how-to
590 posts
CSVGuide
Fixing Garbled Text in CSV Files and Keeping It Fixed
Why accents, euro signs and emoji break in CSV files, how to diagnose each symptom from the bytes, and one routine that converts, loads and checks a file.
21 min read
CSV
How to Escape Quotes and Newlines Inside CSV Fields
Write CSV that survives every reader. Wrap fields with commas, quotes or line breaks, double inner quotes, and round trip test it against four readers.
9 min read
YAMLGuide
Fixing YAML Errors That Make No Sense Step by Step
A YAML debugging guide: the error catalog across three parsers, a worked session through five stacked mistakes, silent failures and tools to prevent them.
20 min read
Excel
Importing Excel Data Into SQL Server With OPENROWSET
Query an Excel file straight from T-SQL with OPENROWSET and the ACE provider, enable ad hoc distributed queries safely, and load into a staging table.
8 min read
CSV
How to Tell What Delimiter an Unknown CSV File Uses
Find a file's delimiter in four steps, from looking at the bytes to a quote aware check, and see where Python, DuckDB and qsv sniffers disagree.
9 min read
PostgreSQLGuide
Setting Up PostgreSQL for Development Without Fighting It
Set up PostgreSQL for development: choose native or Docker, pick a version, create a user, connect, find the config files and fix common errors.
18 min read
Excel
Importing Excel Into SQL Server With the Import Wizard
Use the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard to load an Excel sheet, fix the ACE provider and 64-bit errors, and stop it from guessing column types wrongly.
8 min read
CSV
Does a CSV File Need a Header Row and What If It Has None
A CSV has no flag that says whether row one is a header, so readers guess. Test four files, set the header explicitly, and handle duplicate names.
8 min read
XML
Premature End of Data in Tag and What Usually Caused It
Why XML fails with Premature end of data in tag: truncated downloads, cut gzip streams and empty responses, how each message differs, and what to check.
7 min read
Excel
Importing Excel Into MySQL With Workbench and Scripts
MySQL Workbench cannot import XLSX directly. Convert to CSV for the wizard or LOAD DATA, or use a Python script, and avoid the strict mode and date traps.
7 min read
JSONGuide
Fixing JSON Parse Errors by Reading the Message Properly
How to read a JSON parse error: what the position means in Python, Node, PHP and jq, twelve common causes, and a method that finds the bad byte fast.
18 min read