Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Importing Many Files Into Excel.

Importing Many Files Into Excel

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 8, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365


4

Andrew asked if there is a way to import many different files into Excel, all using the same import specifications. For instance, when you choose to import a comma-delimited text file, Excel's import filter asks you a series of questions about how the import should be done. If you are importing a single file, this is not a problem. If you have fifty or sixty files to import, answering the questions over and over again can get very tedious very quickly.

The short answer is that there is no built-in way to do a "mass import" in Excel. Some questions asked by the import filter simply need to be asked for each file.

Assuming you are trying to import straight text files or CSV files, one thing you can try is to open the files in a text editor and then copy and paste them into a worksheet. It might take you a bit of practice, by doing so with simple files can be done rather quickly.

If you need to do the importing quite often, you'll want to consider creating your own "import" process using a macro. The macro can either open the source file itself, or it can answer the Import Wizard questions, as it sees fit. Of course, writing such a macro can be a daunting exercise. It is beyond the scope of ExcelTips to attempt such a macro, particularly since the process to be followed during the import can vary so much from one type of input file to another.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12080) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Importing Many Files Into Excel.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Sorting Data on Protected Worksheets

Protect a worksheet and you limit exactly what can be done with the data in the worksheet. One of the things that could ...

Discover More

Editing Comments

Comments can be very helpful in a worksheet. After they are added, you may want to change what they contain. Here's how ...

Discover More

Getting a Conditional Count of Cells Containing Values

Excel provides several worksheet functions that can be used to count cells containing values--"particularly numeric ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Stopping Date Parsing when Opening a CSV File

Excel tries to make sense out of any data that you import from a non-Excel file. Sometimes this can have unwanted ...

Discover More

CSV File Opens with Data in a Single Column

When you import a CSV file into an Excel worksheet, you may be surprised at how the program allocates the information ...

Discover More

Determining If a File Exists

Before you have your macro open and read a file from disk, you'll want to check to make sure it is really there. Here's ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 8?

2022-04-08 08:24:36

Kiwerry

@Michael Gamlen: take a look at the bottommost comment below (Andy) and/or search "Power Query" in these Excel tips or a search engine.


2022-04-08 05:43:04

Michael Gamlen

Do you know of any utilities which can do this?


2018-04-14 13:09:13

John

Another slight variation of this is if you only have one or a few files you want to load and put in different worksheets is to set one field up as a parameter that would be as much of the file path you want and only load one table at a time. You can find details of passing a parameter here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-used-named-cells-parameter-inputs-power-query-wyn-hopkins/
Do this in conjunction with the other link on customizing your data once you import it.


2018-04-14 06:31:44

Andy

Data | Get Data | From File | From Folder.

Point Excel to the folder containing the files. You can also do other processing at this stage like deleting columns, changing data types etc.

It will then go through each file and add it to a table in Excel.

No macros needed!

And you can refresh it easily if you add files to the folder or the files change.

Mr Excel explains it well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZSOpmg4ehw. Note that video is from 2015, and the menu option is now slightly different - it is on the Data menu in Excel 2016, for example.


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.