CSV file with Arabic characters is displayed as symbols in Excel

python excel csv arabic arabic-support
Shams picture Shams · Feb 15, 2020 · Viewed 20.7k times · Source

I am using python to extract Arabic tweets from twitter and save it as a CSV file, but when I open the saved file in excel the Arabic language displays as symbols. However, inside python and notepad or word, it looks good. May I know where is the problem?

Answer

dralshehri picture dralshehri · Feb 15, 2020

This is a problem I face frequently with Microsoft Excel when opening CSV files that contain Arabic characters. Try the following workaround that I tested on latest versions of Microsoft Excel on both Windows and MacOS:

  1. Open Excel on a blank workbook

  2. Within the Data tab, click on From Text button (if not activated, make sure an empty cell is selected)

  3. Browse and select the CSV file

  4. In the Text Import Wizard, change the File_origin to "Unicode (UTF-8)"

  5. Go next and from the Delimiters, select the delimiter used in your file e.g. comma

  6. Finish and select where to import the data

The Arabic characters should show correctly.

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