EMMA: Importing Apostrophe Error/Fix
Using an apostrophe (‘) during an import for a contact field can cause issues.
I just ran into an issue yesterday where I was attempting to do an import into a merchant’s database and their Primary Location had a value that included an apostrophe in it. Everything actually imported just fine and there was no warning or error with it. The only way I figured out there was a problem is when I went to create a Primary Location segment based off of that value that had the apostrophe. It came back as 0 subscribers when I knew there should have been thousands of subscriber in it.
I am not aware of any instances that this may have affected during our migration. But I want to throw it out there so everyone is aware and if you know of any merchant’s databases that may include an apostrophe as something we would use as a segment. It probably needs to be checked out.
There is zero issue with using an Apostrophe as a data value for a contact field…we just need to be aware of this if we are changing or updating them using database imports. Signup Forms, Lightboxes and Subscribers Profiles has no problem using them.
Any questions please let me know. Below is the actual fix to the issue.
The Fix!
If you ever run into this scenario the way to fix it is to ensure the column in the CSV file that has all of the data in it is Formatted to TEXT (image below).