I need to work with many non-English letters and encounter some issues with Data Loader and Workbench from Salesforce.com. Therefore, I create this post to keep related notes.
Using Data Loader
When download data from Salesforce.com using Data Loader, be sure to enable UTF-8 options or all UTF-8 characters becomes question marks except English letters.
From [Settings] → [Settings], enable both following UTF-8 options:
- Read all CSVs with UTF-8 encoding
- Write all CSVs with UTF-8 encoding
Using Workbench.Developerforce.com
When download data from Salesforce.com using Workbench with Bulk CSV option, it is encoded in UTF-8.
Don’t Use Excel to Edit
When you export to CSV from Excel, all UTF-8 characters becomes question marks except English letters. There is no option to export to UTF-8 in non-English Excel.
Process with Google Sheet
I use Google Sheet to process and download as CSV. Everything seems fine.
Issue with Google Sheet CSV
I do encounter issue while using Google Sheet to export to CSV once. The tip is to use Notepad++ to change Encoding to Encode in UTF-8-BOM and save. Then use Data Loader again to process without any problems.
CSV Error for Numbers of Columns and Header Not Match
While uploading a CSV file, I saw an error message like: The number of data columns (x) exceeds the number of columns in the header (y). I have check several times and found there is nothing wrong with my CSV.
Finally, I read Apex Data Loader Error: Number of Data Columns exceeds… and realize that I may only select only one of the two when there is empty spaces in data:
- Allow comma as a CSV delimiter
- Allow Tab as a CSV delimiter
Amigo's Technical Notes 