How to convert Excel to Google Sheets 4 best ways.
If you’ve worked with data in Excel and realized that you want to use Google Sheets functions or scripts, converting files from Excel to Google Sheets is quite easy.
However, there are several ways to do this, depending on the format of the source data. The process depends on whether the Excel spreadsheet is saved in CSV format, standard Excel format, or already contains some scripts.
In this article, we’ll walk you through four ways to convert Excel files to a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
1. Simplest: Convert Excel to Google Sheets with Copy and Paste
If you only need to convert data from Excel to Google Sheets and don’t have any complex functions or scripts in the background, simple copy and paste of the data is fine.
1. To do this, simply select all the cells that you want to copy to Excel. Right-click anywhere in the selected range and select Copy.
2. Right-click the top-left cell in the Google Sheets spreadsheet where you want to place the data. Select “Paste.”
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This will fill the sheet with all the data you copied from the Excel spreadsheet. It is so simple.
2. From Excel File: Just Open the Excel File Directly
You can open the Excel file (* .XLSX) directly, but first you have to follow the step to download the file.
In Google Sheets, just follow these steps to open the Excel file directly.
- Choose File from the menu and choose Open or Import.
- In the window that appears, select the “Download” tab, and then click the “Select file from your device” button.
- Find the Excel file that is stored on your computer, select it and click the “Open” button.
- The Excel file will be loaded and then opened in Google Sheets.
You will notice that several things happen when using this approach to convert Excel to Google Sheets.
- The Excel file is automatically converted to Google Sheets format.
- It opens in a new format. created spreadsheet in your Google Sheets account.
- Formatting is as close to the original Excel spreadsheet as possible.
3. Importing CSV: Import Directly From an CSV File
You can import directly from an Excel file saved in CSV format. However, you need to know how the file is split; whether they are separated by tabs, commas, or other characters.
Using the import function
Follow the same procedure as above, but when you select the CSV file, you will see a window where you can choose the file formatting and how to convert the spreadsheet data to a Google Sheet.
You can also customize whether you want to open the data in a new spreadsheet, replace the current sheet, or add to the current sheet. Also indicate if you want the text from the CSV file to be converted to the appropriate data type (numbers, dates, and formulas).
After adjusting the conversion options, select Import Data to transfer the CSV file data into a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Using the IMPORTDATA function
Another approach to transferring data from an Excel file saved in CSV format is to use the IMPORTDATA function in Google Sheets.
This approach has one catch. The file must be stored on a web server on the Internet and accessible via a direct link. For example, the Census Bureau provides many data files in CSV format, such as general population data by state, at the following link:
https: //www.sensus.gov/programs-surveis/popest/datasets/2010-2019/national/totals/nst-est2019-alldata.xv
You can import data directly from such a CSV file into a Google Sheets spreadsheet using the IMPORTDATA function.
1. Open a new Google Sheets spreadsheet. Click the cell where you want to place the imported data. In this cell, enter:
= IMPORTDATA (“https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2010-2019/national/totals/nst-est2019-alldata.csv â€)
2. When you press Enter, you will see the boot status for a few seconds. Then all the data will appear in the spreadsheet.
3. If you want to take a snapshot of the data and put it in a new spreadsheet so that it doesn’t update every time the original CSV data is changed on the Internet, just select all the cells in the original worksheet and copy them. Then open a new worksheet, right-click the cell where you want to place the data, and select Paste Special and then Paste Values ​​Only.
This will copy all the original data into a new static spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
4. Open With: Open File After Uploading
There is another way to convert Excel to Google Sheets. This works regardless of whether the file is saved in CSV or XLSX format.
1. Upload the file directly to your Google Drive account inside any folder.
2. Right-click the file and select Open With, then select Google Sheets.
3. If it is a CSV file, it will open directly in Google Sheets format. If it’s in XLSX format, it will open in Google Docs in XLSX format. You will see this at the top. To convert it to Google Sheets, select File from the File menu and then select Save As Google Sheets.
This will convert the spreadsheet and open it into a new spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Converting Excel to Google Sheets
As you can see, there are several ways to bring your Excel spreadsheet data to Google Sheets. The approach you take depends on the format of the source file and on which procedure you find most comfortable.
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