Concatenate numbers into strings R programming

Question

I have two columns which contain numeric values. I would like to create a third by concatenating them as a string. I do that using the paste function. but on exporting the data to CSV. The third column gets converted into date Desired output (Column C):

A      B     C
2      3     2-3
4      5     4-5

A & B is contained in a dataset called concat code written till now as under

concat$C <- paste(concat$A,concat$B, sep="-", collapse = NULL)

This shows the desired output on screen but on writing to CSV, values in C column changes to date format.

csv is just a text-based file. Perhaps the problem is in whatever application you are using to open that file. — John Coleman, Apr 16 '20 at 11:41
@Aurele - yes. Is there a way to force it to recognise it as a string ? — Jonathan, Apr 16 '20 at 11:42
In Excel you can change the format of a given column from the default "General" to "Text" — John Coleman, Apr 16 '20 at 11:42
@John Coleman. Yes. but regional settings affects the data. My class mate has asia settings and it shows DD-MM and I see MM-DD format. so we both get different outputs when we convert date to general in excel — Jonathan, Apr 16 '20 at 11:44
This question seems relevant: [csv - Stop Excel from automatically converting certain text values to dates](https://stackoverflow.com/q/165042/4996248) — John Coleman, Apr 16 '20 at 11:45
@Aurèle. It works.. but adds a seperator in the beginning so the output looks like '-3-4, '-5-3... is there a way to convert the output into string in R ? — Jonathan, Apr 16 '20 at 11:51
yes this works gives this output "' 3 - 4" "' 4 - 5" "' 5 - 6" "' 2 - 7" "' 3 - 8" — Jonathan, Apr 16 '20 at 12:04

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 16 '20 at 12:28

As the comments have pointed out this a result of the way Excel (or other applications) interpret column formats. Similar problems happen if you want to export numeric columns with leading 0s, open US-format csv in countries like Germany, etc.

The easiest solution to all these problems is to not open .csv in Excel directly.

Instead open a new, empty Excel and use the Import Assistant in the data tab. This will allow you to import csv or any other separated-text-format and control the column formats before importing!

Be aware that simply opening .csv,.tsv, etc. in Exel and then saving in the original file format will overwrite all data to the Excel assumed data format! So always use the import assistant.

Thanks.. This is a really cool tip.. Never knew that it would change the original file format.. — Jonathan, Apr 17 '20 at 05:51

Concatenate numbers into strings R programming

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