Opened it up in Numbers, changed a couple of cells, saved it. Later I realized none of my changes were in the CSV file. Turns out Apple saved it as some kind of other proprietary file.
Yes, the Numbers program saved it as a Numbers document.
Just like Excel saves Excel files.
That's why it's called "import," not "open."
When you pressed Save, a Save As dialog popped up asking for a name. If you had just saved it to the same file, there would be no Save As dialog. It wouldn't ask you for a name because it knew the name.
This is standard across every app on every Mac going back decades. I don't use Windows very often, but I believe it's the same there, too. You aren't asked for a filename if you're updating the same file.
It doesn't sound like an Apple problem, it sounds like you didn't pay attention, and when the computer did what you asked, you blamed the computer. There's nothing Apple or Microsoft or anyone else can do about that.
You're right, Excel does save back to CSV. It discards half your changes because they can't be saved in a CSV, modifies anything that could possibly be a date, and rounds random numbers, THEN it saves it as a CSV.
No, you can't. It will import and re-export every cell, not just the one you modify. This includes interpreting dates and rounding numbers that exceed Excel's max value (instead of interpreting as a string)
They have a small banner at the top to warn about this, but it doesn't even address the things that were already lost the instant you opened it.
Numbers opens the CSV file, gives the user a screen to control import settings, and supports exporting as a CSV with custom delimeters.
Excel does save back to CSV. It discards half your changes because they can't be saved in a CSV, modifies anything that could possibly be a date, and rounds random numbers, THEN it saves it as a CSV.
Numbers makes this an explicit "Export" option because silently saving these types of changes is super dangerous.
Yeah this was the point I was trying to make. Obviously I didn't pay attention, but like...if I open a CSV file, my intuition tells me that if I click "save", it will save to the original CSV file. That's how most other programs work. Just because Excel also does it, doesn't make it a good idea. It's a bad idea and it's a hallmark of legacy software.
Yes, the Numbers program saved it as a Numbers document.
Just like Excel saves Excel files.
That's why it's called "import," not "open."
When you pressed Save, a Save As dialog popped up asking for a name. If you had just saved it to the same file, there would be no Save As dialog. It wouldn't ask you for a name because it knew the name.
This is standard across every app on every Mac going back decades. I don't use Windows very often, but I believe it's the same there, too. You aren't asked for a filename if you're updating the same file.
It doesn't sound like an Apple problem, it sounds like you didn't pay attention, and when the computer did what you asked, you blamed the computer. There's nothing Apple or Microsoft or anyone else can do about that.