# I having difficulty down loading the CSV formatted data into EXCEL. Any suggestions?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-having-difficulty-down-loading-the-csv-formatted-data-into-excel-any-suggestions/2216>\
**Category:** USA\
**Created:** [March 15, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-having-difficulty-down-loading-the-csv-formatted-data-into-excel-any-suggestions/2216 "2018-03-15T17:59:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HANSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HANSA](https://forum.ipums.org/u/HANSA)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-having-difficulty-down-loading-the-csv-formatted-data-into-excel-any-suggestions/2216/1 "2018-03-15T17:59:00Z")

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When I upload the CSV formatted data into EXCEL I get non alpha charactures in a single column. What is the best way to upload data into EXCEL?

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**Author:** ![grover](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/grover/32/5_2.png) [@grover](https://forum.ipums.org/u/grover)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 9:23pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-having-difficulty-down-loading-the-csv-formatted-data-into-excel-any-suggestions/2216/2 "2018-03-15T21:23:00Z")

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The issue may be that your data extract includes more records (meaning rows) then Excel is able to hold in on spreadsheet. There are a number of ways to [limit the size of your data extract](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/faq#ques15). Since your particular issue is that there are too many records I would recommend using either the [select cases](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/faq#6) feature or the [custom sample size](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/faq#ques37) feature.