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Asked: 2026-06-12T16:43:25+00:00

How can I get rid of these null columns? I’m importing my csv file

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How can I get rid of these null columns?
I’m importing my csv file to create a table on phpMyAdmin. The sql query looks appropriate but at the end, I get…

`Category 1` VARCHAR( 97 ) ,
`Category 2` VARCHAR( 113 ) ,
`NULL` VARCHAR( 71 ) ,
`NULL` VARCHAR( 56 ) ,
`NULL` VARCHAR( 73 ) ,
`NULL` VARCHAR( 97 )
) ENGINE = MYISAM DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

MySQL said: 

#1060 - Duplicate column name 'NULL'

Category 2 should be the last column. I can’t figure out where the null columns are coming from, or how to get rid of them. The original file is given to me in .xls format. I make some changes and save as csv. I used to upload an xls file (never had problems) but I think our cPanel was upgraded so it’s all changed.

So far I’ve tried deleting 4+ columns at the end while in OpenOffice. I’ve tried opening the csv in notepad and making sure there was no extra commas or spaces, adding in / to escape. I’ve tried fiddling with the import options in phpMyAdmin but I’m far from an expert so no luck there.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I had a similar thing with two cvs uploads.
    PHPMyAdmin complained that one had 2 NULL columns at the end, and the other had 6.
    Thought I’d ‘fixed’ it by adding extra fake columns, but no.

    Turned out that some of the data had double quotes round it, fooling mysql into thinking there was the wrong number of columns.

    Just had to check through all the data to make sure it was clean…
    I know its more of a work around than a fix. But the best I could do in a short time.

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