Re: [Gretl-users] Export data & Decimal point
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010, Henrique Andrade wrote:
Define "change":
If I have a .csv formatted according to Brazilian settings (i.e. "," as the
decimal
point) I can use double-clicking to open my data using Excel. Otherwise I need to
open the .csv file in a text editor and replace all "." with ","
before go to Excel.
No, you don't. I believe that Windows has some configuration setting
called "International Options" or something like that (it used to be in
the Control Panel in XP).
IMHO, CSV files should only use the dot as decimal separator,
in the
interest of portability across countries. I am aware that not everyone
agrees with me on this, one notable case being ISTAT, the Italian
Statistical Institute (which I find very annoying). But if the Academy
of Science of Berzerkistan decided to use "@" as the decimal separator,
you would still find it mildly funny to open a CSV file coming from your
Berzerki co-author, full of gems like 1@234.
I think the portability is guaranteed by the .gdt file.
Not really. gdt files are ok for people who use gretl, or don't mind about
xml. The CSV format is supposed to be universal.
It would be great (at least for me) if Gretl gives me the option to
export data into .csv Brazilian formatted data.
While I am against this on ideological grounds, I have to admit that a
checkbox wouldn't be difficult to add. But I hate the idea of giving
support or credibility to the concept of "national CSV" format, which is,
after all, one of the many ways Microsoft has polluted the environment: I
am not aware of any application other than Excel (or Excel derivatives)
that considers a "national CSV" file as a valid CSV file (the "C" in
CSV
is there for a reason).
The preferences checkbox is there to ensure that, as a proud
citizen of
your home country, you don't have a fit any time you see a dot instead
of a comma and are reminded of how evil Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialism
is.
I admire and respect United States a lot ;-)
:-D
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Economia
Università Politecnica delle Marche
r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it
http://www.econ.univpm.it/lucchetti