[Mesquitelist] Troubleshooting character matrix formatting, copy-paste from excel

[Patrick Moldowan]

Dear Mesquite users,

I have recently encountered a problem when pasting values into a character matrix and I am seeking troubleshooting advice.

In all I have a character matrix composed of 104 taxa and 12 traits.  Presently all my data is stored in Excel 2007 and I have been attempting to paste it into a character matrix associated with my composed phylogeny.  The Excel data sheet and character matrix are a perfect fit (i.e. there is the exact number of data “boxes” in both matrices).   

When attempting to paste data from Excel into the character matrix there are formatting complications when a decimal point is present, but no problems in the case of whole numbers.  For example, copying “2.12” from Excel pastes in the Mesquite character matrix as “1&2”.  Similarly, “3.62” results in “2&3&6”.   If I paste whole numbers from Excel to Mesquite, such as “1” or “2”, these transfer with no problems.  I believe that the issue is in the use of a decimal point.

I have tried pasting one row or column at a time as well, but with no success.   I have tried to remove any formatting that Excel have and have copied data into a simple text file (with Notepad), but neither attempts have resolved the issue.  I am kindly looking for any suggestions that will allow me to get around the formatting issues when transferring data from Excel 2010 to my character matrix in Mesquite.  

Thank you very much for your time!  Sincerely,

- Patrick Moldowan
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B.Sc. Candidate 2012
Wildlife Biology, Honours
University of Guelph
ON, Canada
pmoldowa at uoguelph.ca
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