Univik Concordance DAT to Excel Converter
At a Glance
Key FeaturesCorrect Field Mapping
The header row becomes your column titles and every field lands under the right one, so BEGBATES, custodian and date read where you expect them, not shifted a column over.
At a Glance
DAT to Excel at a Glance
Five quick answers before you scroll.
$0
Free to Use
Convert a Concordance DAT file to Excel free, with no watermark and no sign-up.
þ
Delimiters Read
The ASCII 20 field separator and thorn qualifier are handled for you.
00
Bates Kept
Leading zeros on Bates numbers survive, unlike a plain Excel export.
XLSX
Real Workbook
Output is a clean XLSX with every field in its own column, ready for QC.
PC
Runs Offline
Everything happens on your Windows PC, so a production stays confidential.
The Short Version
Why Excel Won't Open a DAT File Cleanly
A Concordance DAT file is the standard load file of eDiscovery, one document per line with a column of metadata for each. Two things stop Excel from reading it.
Trap 1: The Delimiters
Fields are separated by an invisible control character, ASCII 20, and each value is wrapped in a thorn qualifier, ASCII 254. No tool outside legal tech reads those characters, so Excel with its default comma setting merges every field into one column.
Trap 2: The Encoding
A DAT file saved as Windows-1252 opens with garbled accents when Excel expects UTF-8. The import wizard gives you no way to set both a field separator and a text qualifier at once, so the file still comes in wrong.
You can try Excel's own Get Data and Power Query import, but it lets you pick one delimiter at a time and has no slot for a text qualifier, so a Concordance file still comes in wrong. Univik DAT to Excel Converter reads the Concordance delimiters and writes a clean XLSX workbook, so you can open a load file in Excel for quality control in seconds. For the full breakdown of the format, see our Concordance DAT file guide, or read a load file without Excel in the DAT viewer.
Key Features
What the DAT to Excel Converter Does
Built for the details that matter when a load file becomes a workbook.
Encoding Detection
Windows-1252 and UTF-8 are picked up on their own, so accented names and non-English text carry into the workbook cleanly instead of turning into odd symbols.
Batch Folder Conversion
Point the tool at a folder and convert every DAT file inside in one run, which saves real time when a matter arrives as several load files at once.
Family Ranges Stay Aligned
BegAttach and EndAttach values keep their place next to each record, so document families and Bates ranges line up for review instead of drifting out of order.
Original File Untouched
The converter reads your DAT file and writes a separate workbook. The source load file is never changed, which keeps the chain of custody clean for a production.
No eDiscovery Seat Needed
Run it on a plain Windows PC with no Concordance or Relativity licence, so anyone on the team can turn a load file into Excel without waiting for a platform seat.
Three Steps
Three StepsHow to Convert a DAT File to Excel
The quick way to import a DAT into Excel. Add the file, convert, open in Excel, with no delimiter settings to guess at.
1
Add the DAT File
Point the converter at your Concordance DAT load file on any Windows 11 or 10 PC.
2
Convert to XLSX
The tool reads the field separator and thorn qualifier and writes each field to its own column.
3
Open in Excel
Open the workbook and sort, filter and check the records the way you would any spreadsheet.
Download the Free Converter
Windows 11 and 10 · no Concordance or Relativity seat · nothing uploaded
Bates Integrity
Leading Zeros on Bates Numbers Stay Put
A plain Excel export trims the leading zeros off a Bates number. That breaks your ranges.
Why this matters
Excel treats a value like a Bates number as a plain number, so it drops the leading zeros. A BEGNO of 00020177 becomes 20177, and a range that should sort and match cleanly no longer does. It is a well-known trap even when exporting straight from Concordance, and fixing it by hand across thousands of rows is slow and error-prone.
Univik writes Bates fields as text, so 00020177 stays 00020177 in the workbook. Your ranges line up, your sorts are correct, and your QC actually checks the data instead of chasing a formatting bug.
Who It Helps
Who Needs to Convert a DAT to Excel
Reviewing a production in Excel is a normal quality-control step. This makes it quick.
QC on a Production
A production arrives as a DAT and image set. Before it loads to a review platform, someone checks the fields, Bates ranges and record count in Excel. This gets the data there cleanly.
Paralegals and Lit Support
Confirm field names, custodians and family ranges in a familiar grid. Sorting and filtering in Excel is often the fastest way to spot a gap before review starts.
eDiscovery Vendors
Spot-check a DAT file you built for a client before delivery. An Excel copy makes it easy to verify the delimiter, encoding and field count are right.
Anyone Handed a .dat File
You need the data in Excel and the file will not cooperate. Convert it here and get a clean workbook without learning the Concordance format first.
Big Productions
Big ProductionsLoad Files Bigger Than an Excel Sheet
1,048,576
Excel's row ceiling
per sheet, hard limit
Load files often run to hundreds of thousands or millions of rows, and Excel stops at that ceiling. When a DAT file is larger, the converter reads the whole file and writes it so nothing is lost, splitting across sheets or files where a single sheet cannot hold it all.
If your goal is a fast look at a load file that is too big for one sheet, the DAT viewer opens it as a table without Excel and without the row limit.
Compare Your Options
Three Ways to Get a DAT into Excel
People solve this three ways. Here is how they stack up.
| What you need | Manual Power Query | Excel Add-ins | Univik ConverterFREE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Field separator and qualifier together | One at a time | Yes | Automatic |
| Encoding detected for you | Manual pick | Varies | Automatic |
| Bates leading zeros kept | Only if set per column | Varies | Always |
| Works without Excel installed | No | No | Yes |
| Effort per file | Wizard every time | Install and configure | Add file and run |
Every route works with enough patience. The converter is the one that needs none.
What You Need
System Requirements
Operating System
Windows 11 and Windows 10, both 64-bit, plus Windows Server for teams on a review server.
Excel Not Required to Convert
The converter writes the XLSX on its own. You need Excel only to open the result, not to run the conversion.
Memory and Disk
4 GB RAM handles everyday load files. Large productions convert faster with 8 GB. The install is small.
No Internet Required
The tool works fully offline. A connection is used only to download the installer, never to convert a file.
Questions
QuestionsDAT to Excel Questions
Add your DAT file to Univik DAT to Excel Converter and convert. The tool reads the ASCII 20 field separator and the thorn text qualifier, then writes a clean XLSX workbook with every field in its own column, so you can open it in Excel for review right away.
Excel reads the file with a comma delimiter by default, but a Concordance DAT file separates fields with an invisible control character, ASCII 20, and wraps values in a thorn qualifier. Excel cannot set both at once, so every field merges into one column. The converter reads those delimiters for you and lays each field into its own column.
Yes. Univik writes Bates fields as text, so a BEGNO like 00020177 stays 00020177 in the workbook. A plain Excel export treats it as a number and trims the leading zeros, turning it into 20177 and breaking your ranges, which this avoids.
No. The converter reads the DAT file directly on a plain Windows PC and writes the XLSX itself. You do not need a Concordance database, a Relativity workspace or any eDiscovery platform, and you do not even need Excel installed to run the conversion.
Yes. Excel caps a sheet at 1,048,576 rows, so when a DAT file is larger the converter splits the output across sheets or files so nothing is dropped. For a fast look at a file too big for Excel, the DAT viewer opens it as a table with no row limit.
No. The conversion runs entirely on your own Windows PC and the tool opens the DAT file without changing the original. Nothing is uploaded, which keeps a legal production confidential and the chain of custody clean.
That is an encoding mismatch. Many DAT files are saved as Windows-1252, where the thorn qualifier is a single byte, but Excel often assumes UTF-8, so accented names come out as odd symbols. The converter detects the encoding and writes correct text to the workbook, so names like Jose or Muller read properly.
A Concordance DAT file uses three special characters: the field separator is ASCII 20, an invisible control character, the text qualifier is the thorn character, ASCII 254, and a newline inside a field is marked by the registered-trademark character, ASCII 174. The converter recognizes all three so the columns come out correctly.
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Data & forensic software
Since 2013
About This Page
The Univik Research Team has been building data conversion and forensic software since 2013. Our engineers work with eDiscovery load files every day, including Concordance DAT, OPT and delimited data. Content on this page is checked against published Concordance and load-file specifications.
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