Excel file getting corrupted - excel

When I save a file with macros in office 2019 it gets corrupted. If I recover it it will remove all listobjects, shapes, etc...
If I recover it in excel 2013 it will remove just validation lists.
Is there a way to trace opening and determine what is causing the problems?
I can also upload excel file if anyone is interested to take a look at in...
Edit:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/np02i4dhkrw9trh/SQLDB%20%E2%80%93%20ZA%20KALKULACIJE.xlsm?dl=0
In this file if you add validation list at Sheet1 to "Baza Podatkov" and then save and reopen it will corrupt the file.

Corrupt Excel files is a common and known issue (when using the xlsx or xlsm format). Once a file was corrupted never trust Excel if it tells you it could be repaired. In most cases the file stays somehow corrupted (even if it tells you it was successfully repaired). Don't trust this file anymore. Start a new file, copy over the data and macros using copy/paste.
I recommend to save the files (especially if they contain big data) in the binary xlsb format. This is known to be much more staple than xlsx or xlsm and furthermore it produces much smaller files. Give it a try.

Ok I've found that I was adding items to list without using comma or something. Still weird that it didn't work.

Related

Excel behaves strange with XSLX file created manually

Based on knowledge gained through working with the OpenXML SDK, I have implemented an Excel generator in JS (using TypeScript with ReactJS and a custom JSX factory generating plain XML). The files generated open fine in Excel and one can also edit and save them fine in Excel, no errors.
However, if one tries to copy cells (even a single one) from such a generated Excel file to another worksheet in the same Excel instance, it fails with the error "The command cannot be used on multiple selections.". Just saving and reopening the file is enough to fix the problem. Copying to other applications (e.g. Notepad) works fine.
It seems that this particular error is shown by Excel in several edge cases where the data is not exactly meet the expected format, for instance I found reports of that happening when a sheet is hidden when manipulating it via VBA. However, in my case I'm not sure what could be causing the issue.
Just saving the file in Excel unfortunately significantly alters its parts, so that I couldn't get a meaningful diff out of it. I did not see what could be causing the problem. Maybe someone has some experience with the internals of Excel?
To get a sample file, copy the following into your browser address bar and save it as xlsx file:
data:application/vndopenxmlformats-officedocumentspreadsheetmlsheet;base64,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
Well, I don't know the particulars of how you are generating the xml file, but I can tell you how to edit the underlying xml files so that it will work, and then perhaps you can figure out how to use your implementation to change the property that's gunking things up.
First, an xlsx is a set of xml files. I'm sure you know that, but I'm just starting at the beginning. You can change the extension to zip and then extract the files, and then rezip them and change the extension back to xlsx.
So do this:
take the generated xlsx
change the extension to .zip
extract the files
find xl\worksheets\sheet1.xml
open it and find this property: worksheet>sheetViews>sheetView:tabSelected
set it to 0
save the file
go back to the unzipped folder
select all files and send to zip
change the extension on the new zip file to .xlsx
You should now be able to open the newly created xlsx, add a new sheet, and copy freely.
If this works for you, then you have diagnosed the problem, one property set to true when it shouldn't be, and it should be relatively simple for you to modify your export procedure.
I've had this issue multiple times in the past.
The way I solved it was by filling out (populating) a template (file, previously created in Office) with the exported data rather than generating a file from scratch. Office unfortunately does not fully comply with OpenXML, and for more complex exports you might even be unable to open the file.
I would also recommend Beyond Compare (now Scooter Software) for comparing the two files instead of just doing a diff.

The file format and extension of filename.xls don't match. The file could be corrupted or unsafe

My code exports an excel (.xls) file as HTML from a webpage. On opening this downloaded file, I get an error saying:
The file format and extension of filename.xls don't match. The file could be corrupted or unsafe. Unless you trust its source, don't open it. Do you want to open it anyway?
On clicking yes, it displays the contents correctly. Is there a way to get rid of the warning?
Other questions addressing this error have suggested changing the extension from .xls to .xlsx, but that completely prevents the files from opening in my case.
To clarify, I am not importing HTML data into an excel spreadsheet. I am representing an excel spreadsheet as HTML. I can share the file if required.

File that normally opens our application, but will fall back to Excel

Our application exports snippets of databases in XLSX format. We wrote our own code on top of System.Packaging as it is many (many!) times faster than using the Excel objects.
Right now we save these files with a .xlsx format, and that works OK. However, it would be much nicer if double-clicking one of these opened our app instead, but failed back to Excel on machines without it.
I know that SpreadsheetML has a feature to do this. If you insert this near the top of the file:
<?mso-application progid=""Excel.Sheet""?>
some sort of magic occurs that causes Excel to open on Win machines. While this might work in SML files, it does not appear to work in "real" xlsx files - I tried adding this line to various parts of the workbook structure but it remained unrecognized.
So is there a similar mechanism we can use in "true" XLSX files generated by System.Packaging? Or some other Windows mechanism we should use in these situations?

Recover unsaved .csv file changes

Does anyone know a way to recover changes made in a .csv that were not saved when excel 2007 was closed.
At the moment, I don't see any way to solve this.
Check all the temporary files created recently. Especially alongside the file you opened. There are a few temp folders in the system that Excel may use. C:\Windows\temp is the main one, but it is usually under the Users folder in later versions of windows. Eg: C:\Users\YourUserName\Local Settings\Temp
If you find any files that look like Excel temps, take a copy and rename the extension and then try to open it.
(Your only real chance is if auto-save kicked in and saved a copy - to a temp file - when you still had your new changes in the document. Otherwise the changes are lost I'm afraid)
If option #1 doesn't resolve your problem in Excel, go to File->Options->Save. Hopefully your AutoRecover file location, under the third box, will be populated with an address.

End user difference between .xls and .xlsb?

I'm using the TransferSpreadsheet command to export Access queries to an Excel file in a folder. I realize I can specify a file name (with extension) for it to create, but I decided to experiment and left out a file name in the destination path. The result was an Excel file with the query name saved as a .xlsb file.
I'd never heard of this, but it opened fine and after research I found that it is a more compact, quicker to open/save/close than traditional .xls. Great! These exported Excel files will be opened by potentially 20-25 users, each of whom has one of Excel 03, 07, or 10. For flexibility's sake, I would prefer to export the query without defining a file name.
Is .xlsb compatible with all of these? If so, is there any reason to not use this format? Can the end user format, modify, or otherwise tinker with a .xlsb file as though it was .xls?
.xlsb was introduced in excel 2007 alongside .xlsx and .xlsm. All three formats use the OPC standard and are conceptually similar (whereas .xls, while also a binary format, is much different -- for example, it uses an OLE container format rather than zip)
.xlsb is not compatible with .xls, and AFAICT there are no open source tools that can write XLSB. The j tool (available on node npm at https://npmjs.org/package/j) appears to parse XLSB. If you expect others to use their own tools (not excel) then you are better off sticking with XLS. However, if Excel is part of the workflow, then XLSB is a compelling option

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