.csv did not save all tabs

Question

I downloaded a database in .csv and made pivot tables in different tabs.

I saved the file without complications, but when I went to open it, only the tab with the database appeared, the other tabs did not appear.

Does anyone know if I can recover the data from the other tabs?

Answer 1

.csv or Comma Separated Values is a spreadsheet format that can contain only values like numbers or text separated by a comma or other such separators, in a simple text file. It can not contain other things like various sheets or charts and other such objects.

Does anyone know if I can recover the data from the other tabs?

If you have saved a file as .csv, and closed Excel, then all such data is already lost from the file. If you're lucky, however, excel might have autosaved some of the file.

Answer 2

Always read the pop-up warnings:

Answer 3

You're out of luck. You need to either allow Excel to warn you of these feature/format compatibility issues, or you need to be aware of them yourself.

Excel will warn you if you're saving a file in a format that does not support the features the file contains, but in the most recent versions of Excel they allow you to dismiss these warnings and hide them, which is nice if you know the features your format supports, but if you aren't aware of the features you should not hide these warnings.

You can re-enable the warnings, if they have been disabled, in Excel Settings. I strongly suggest you do this.

Answer 4

As comments have stated, .csv is a simple text file format. It can't store multiple sheets, pivottables, or any other advanced feature. It can't even store font changes.

If you open a .csv file using a text editor such as Notepad, you'll see the data shown exactly like this:

Column1,Column2,Column3,Column4 1,2,3,4 5,6,7,8

When Excel opens a .csv file, it automatically parses it into rows and columns, using the commas to mark the columns; however, this doesn't change the underlying structure of the file, it's just Excel displaying it to you in a format you can work with.

.csv is widely used for distributing data because it's extremely simple, so almost any application can open the file and make use of it. You don't need a copy of Excel or OpenOffice or anything else to make use of the data.

If you want to save more advanced features, like PivotTables, formulas, or formatting, you'll need to use File | Save As to save a copy of the file in one of the Excel formats, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, etc.