Question marks in strange places .csv

[michwdmn]

Hello,

I'm using excel 2016.

Trying to save tables as .csv so I can load them into a GIS program, but in one column (containing multiple digit unique identifiers) question marks are showing up in seemingly random cells, usually at the start of the cell.

For example, 4242656 in my excel table becomes ?4242656 in the .csv. It only happens to a small fraction of the cells, but the tables are big enough that it would be a real pain to have to go through and delete the question marks by hand.

Is there a simpler solution? Find and replace does not work. Thank you

<tbody>
</tbody><colgroup><col></colgroup>

 

[mrmmickle1]

Find and replace the question marks "~?" with ""
Since ? is a wildcard character you need to put a tilde in front of it.

 

[michwdmn]

Thank you! This works. Though I still don't understand how those cells were corrupted. I tried copying and pasting as values into a new document. Then I copied and pasted that into google sheets and exported from there and I was still getting strange symbols in the same cells. Anyway, many thanks.