Create a Google Sheet from a CSV file preventing auto-formatting of date and number fields

By default, both Excel and Google Sheets auto-format date and numeric fields on import. This can introduce errors in systems that expect these values to be retained as strings.

For example 2016-04 is converted to a date 04/01/2016

• Google Script Project
  • Select "Make a Copy" to save an editable copy
  • Click "Deploy as Webapp", set the run as parameters as appropriate to you
  • Get the current web app URL
  • Run the Web App to upload a CSV file

Note the date fields that should not be auto-formatted.

Note the preservation of the date strings in the resulting spreadsheet.

• Open Google Drive
• Create a new "Google Apps Script" and name it "CSV Upload"
• Load the 3 code files in this repository
• Click the "Deploy as Web App" button (cloud with an arrow in it)
• Execute the app as: User Running the Script
• Who has access: Choose the appropriate audience
• Save the URL to the deployed application (be sure the URL ends with /exec and not /dev)
• Share the URL with your users
• Users will need to authorize the application to write to Google Drive before running the application

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/36605298/create-a-google-sheet-with-plain-text-cells-to-prevent-auto-format-of-strings

Georgetown University Library IT Code Repositories