How does one specify a cell to contain exactly one double-quote character in a TSV file so that it will be handled correctly when imported (as a spreadsheet) into Google Sheets?
(Note: when importing the file, Tab rather than Automatic must be specified as Separator Character in the import dialog; if I don't do this, the imported sheet has even more problems.)
I have tried all of the following, without success
"
'"
""
'"'
I also tried manually inserting a lone double-quote character in one cell of a Google Sheets, and then downloading the spreadsheet and inspecting the downloaded file. Frustratingly enough, the downloaded file shows a lone double-quote character (i.e. not escaped in any way) between the flanking tab characters.
BTW, this means, among other things, that Google Sheets cannot do the download-re-import round trip. E.g. if the spreadsheet I downloaded is re-imported (exactly as it was delivered by Google Sheets) into a Google Sheets (specifying tab as a separator character in the import dialog), the formatting is messed up; the lone double quote apparently has the effect of escaping the subsequent tab, so the import does not recognize it as a separator.
I stress that what I'm looking is for how to write the TSV so that it gets imported correctly into a Google Sheets. IOW, simply entering the double-quote manually into a Google spreadsheet is of no use here.
Best Answer
Try four double-quotes, e.g.
According to Wikipedia there is no reliable standard, but some attempts have been made.