AppleScript for Excel 2008: trouble with open text file

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

I’m having trouble getting the “open text file” command in Excel 2008 for Mac to work like I want it to. It seems that Excel is ignoring the “start row” and “field info” options. I’m trying to strip out some of the header information and one blank column from some .csv data files. In addition, I need for column 2 to be imported as text (it’s a time stamp in hh:mm:ss.sss format), but instead Excel is importing it as a date format and rounding the seconds to the nearest tenth. Here’s my code:

on run {}
	set falias to (choose file with prompt "Select file to convert for analysis:" without invisibles)
	tell application "Microsoft Excel"
		activate
		open text file filename (falias as text) origin Macintosh start row 8 data type delimited field info {{1, 9}, {2, 2}} with comma #without space, tab and other char
		select range "1:7"
		delete selection
		select range "2:3"
		delete selection
		select range "A:A"
	end tell
end run

and here is a sample from one of my data files which you can copy into a text document.

Log File Version ,2.3
8/28/2009 2:47:41 PM
Log Mode ,Log When Any Data Received
,Version,3.2.0.023
,ScreenMonitorType,RequestReceive
,Initial Monitor Rate,1 Milliseconds

Parameter Name,DLA Timestamp,Fuel_Temperature,Compressor_Inlet_Tmptr,EGR_Orifice_Tmptr,Final_Timing,Coolant_Temperature
Units,none,Deg_C,Deg_C,Deg_C,deg_BTDC,Deg_C
Source Address,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00
,49:50:20.681,70.000,27.02,51.86,1.44,68.234
,49:50:21.281,70.000,27.03,51.86,1.44,68.234
,49:50:21.882,70.000,27.03,51.86,1.44,68.234
,49:50:22.481,70.000,27.03,51.86,1.44,68.078
,49:50:23.081,70.000,27.02,51.86,2.00,68.078
,49:50:23.681,70.000,27.02,51.86,3.31,67.914
,49:50:24.281,70.000,27.02,51.86,2.56,67.914
,49:50:24.881,70.000,27.02,51.86,2.63,68.078
,49:50:25.501,70.000,27.02,51.86,2.69,68.234
,49:50:26.102,70.000,27.02,51.86,2.75,68.391

I’ve added the range select and delete lines to do what the “open text file” does not. If “open text file” worked as it should, they would be redundant and actually mess up my file.
If anyone can help me on this, I will be grateful. Thanks in advance.

Model: Black MB
AppleScript: 2.0.1
Browser: Safari 531.9
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.5)

#2

This might help:

on run {}
	set falias to (choose file with prompt "Select file to convert for analysis:" without invisibles)
	tell application "Microsoft Excel"
		activate
		open text file filename (falias as text) origin Macintosh start row 8 data type delimited field info {{1, text format}, {2, text format}, {3, text format}, {4, text format}, {5, text format}, {6, text format}, {7, text format}} with comma #without space, tab and other char
		select range "1:7"
		delete selection
		select range "2:3"
		delete selection
		select range "A:A"
	end tell
end run
#3

Thanks for the suggestion :), but that didn’t seem to do the trick for me. It still did not begin the import on row 8, column 1 was not excluded, and column 2 did not import as a text column. I wish I knew why MS Excel was not following instructions. :mad: