I've got a problem with importing an SQL spreadsheet into SSIS.
The spreadsheet has values in its columns, such as 40.09, however the cell has a custom format on it so it displays as $40 and this is the value that SSIS attempts to bring in.
I can't change the source spreadsheet as it is supplied by a vendor, and the purpose of this package is to automate the import of this spreadsheet. I tried changing the data type of the external and output columns of the Excel source to currency however at runtime, I received an error about not being able to convert due to loss of precision. The annoying thing is it correctly picked up another column as currency (which I'm guessing is because this column has values within the first 8 rows?).
Any advice on how to get the unformatted value?
I have a very strange problem. I built a macro that refreshes several PivotTables. Everything is fine except for one PivotTable where one value "AGHF21A#BFF" in the source gets changed into "54r" in the Pivot Table. Other PivotTables also get data from this source and they all get the correct value. This only happens with this specific case from a list of 30 products, this is the only one that changes the value in the Pivot Table.
I tried everything Excel would allow me do. I changed the format to string/general. I tried to do a calculated field. The strange thing is that if in the source data I add let's say any character, remove any character or change any character then the pivot table does recognize the code and does not change it to the strange code "54r." I have never seen any Pivot table do this before.
The Macro downloads different reports into Excel and then it refreshes the PivotTables. Any help would be very appreciated.
I have a field in a SQL table which is of datatype 'money'. I'm loading the contents of this table to an excel destination using SSIS. Now the excel destination needs this money column to have a $ symbol i.e. basically format it to currency. It doesn't seems to work. I need to manually format the output each time. I can convert it using Derived column in SSIS and add a $ symbol; This would however convert the field to a string field and load it to excel which is not what I want.
Any inputs?
I tried adding a sample row with proper formatting and hiding the row in the excel destination before loading it. That doesn't work either.
Thanks.
Hidden sample row works for me. Here are the steps I suggest:
Create Excel file with column datatype defined as Currency with $ at
the start.
Add column name, e.g. "Total" In the second row put 0 in the cell.
Ensure that it is shown as "$0,00".
Create data flow with source as your SQL Server table and Excel
destination created based on your Excel file. Define mapping, etc.
Right click on created Excel destination, click "Show Advanced
Editor", go to "Input and Output Properties". Open "External
Columns" list and ensure that "Total" column is picked automatically
as currency [DT_CY]
Check this post as well: http://sqlserversolutions.blogspot.com/2011/10/numeric-gets-converted-to-text-in-excel.html
I have an issue that I know is solve-able, I just cant find the setting or work out how to do it. I have a report where I have merged two columns. Lets say these are columns a and b. I want that when the report is exported to excel that you can click into column A, and it does not merge with column b. this would allow you to filter etc by the data under column a. The reason column a and b are merged in the first place is that the heading needs to go across two cells due to size.
I know this is do-able as it exists on a report i inherited, just i can't find the setting.
This is usually due to the misalignment of your header cells with your table cells. The Excel export tries to have everything formatted the same as in the report so it will sometimes use two columns for the table cells and merge them so it can align the columns to the header columns. This is problematic when it comes to manipulating, filtering and sorting the spreadsheet.
The best way to avoid this is to create an Excel renderer that doesn't render the header part of the report as described in my answer here.
However, if the cells need to be merged in your report deliberately then you aren't going to be able to do what you want to do using your current report as Excel will duplicate the formatting, including the merged cells.
Probably the only way to get something like what you are after is to create another report that is formatted the way you would like it to be in Excel. In the header of your original report put a text box (or an image with an Excel icon) with an Action on it to open the new, properly formatted, report in Excel, passing across parameters as appropriate. Now the user just need to click on the Action link in the original report to open the more user-friendly report in Excel.
When an excel data source is used in SSIS, the data types of each individual column are derived from the data in the columns. Is it possible to override this behaviour?
Ideally we would like every column delivered from the excel source to be string data type, so that data validation can be performed on the data received from the source in a later step in the data flow.
Currently, the Error Output tab can be used to ignore conversion failures - the data in question is then null, and the package will continue to execute. However, we want to know what the original data was so that an appropriate error message can be generated for that row.
According to this blog post, the problem is that the SSIS Excel driver determines the data type for each column based on reading values of the first 8 rows:
If the top 8 records contain equal number of numeric and character types – then the priority is numeric
If the majority of top 8 records are numeric then it assigns the data type as numeric and all character values are read as NULLs
If the majority of top 8 records are of character type then it assigns the data type as string and all numeric values are read as
NULLs
The post outlines two things you can do to fix this:
First, add IMEX=1 to the end of your Excel driver connection string. This will allow Excel to read the values as Unicode. However, this is not sufficient if the data in the first 8 rows are numeric.
In the registry, change the value for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Nod\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Excel\TypeGuessRows to 0. This will ensure that the driver looks at all the rows to determine the data type for the column.
Yes, you can. Just go into the output column list on the Excel source and set the type for each of the columns.
To get to the input columns list right click on the Excel source, select 'Show Advanced Editor', click the tab labeled 'Input and Output Properties'.
A potentially better solution is to use the derived column component where you can actually build "new" columns for each column in Excel. This has the benefits of
You have more control over what you convert to.
You can put in rules that control the change (i.e. if null give me an empty string, but if there is data then give me the data as a string)
Your data source is not tied directly to the rest of the process (i.e. you can change the source and the only place you will need to do work is in the derived column)
If your Excel file contains a number in the column in question in the first row of data, it seems that the SSIS engine will reset the type to a numeric type. It kept resetting mine. I went into my Excel file and changed the numbers to "Numbers stored as text" by placing a single quote in front of them. They are now read as text.
I also noticed that SSIS uses the first row to IGNORE what the programmer has indicated is the actual type of the data (I even told Excel to format the entire column as TEXT, but SSIS still used the data, which was a bunch of digits), and reset it. Once I fixed that by putting a single-quote in my Excel file in front of the number in the first row of data, I thought it would get it right, but no, there is additional work.
In fact, even though the SSIS External DataSource Column now has the type DT_WSTR, it will still read 43567192 as 4.35671E+007. So you have to go back into your Excel file and put single quotes in front of all the numbers.
Pretty LAME, Microsoft! But there's your solution. I have no idea what to do if the Excel file is not under your control.
I was looking for a solution for the similar issue, but didn't find anything on the internet. Although most of the found solutions work at design time, they don't work when you want to automate your SSIS package.
I resolved the issue and made it work by changing the properties of "Excel Source". By default the AccessMode property is set to OpenRowSet. If you change it to SQL Command, you can write your own SQL to convert any column as you wish.
For me SSIS was treating the NDCCode column as float, but I needed it as a string and so I used following SQL:
Select [Site], Cstr([NDCCode]) as NDCCode From [Sheet1$]
Excel source is SSIS behaves crazy. SSIS determines the type of data in a particualr column by reading first 10 rows.. hence the issue. If you have a text column with null values in first 10 roes, SSIS takes the data type as Int. With a bit of struggle, here is a workaround
Insert a dummy row (preferrably first row) in the worksheet. I prefer doing this thru a Script task, you may consider using some service to preprocess the file before SSIS connects to it
With the duummy row, you are sure that the datatypes will be set as you need
Read the data using Excel source and filter out the dummy row before you take it for further processing.
I know it is a bit shabby, but it works :)
I could fix this issue. while creating the SSIS package, I manually changed the specific column to text (Open the excel file select the column, right click on column, select format cells, in number tab select Text and save the excel).
Now create the SSIS package and test it. It works. Now try to use the excel file where this column was not set as text.
It worked for me and I could execute the package successfully.
This should be resolved simply, just untick the box "Frist row as column names" and all data will be collected as text data type. Only downside of this choice is that you have to manage the columns names from the auto names (column 1, 2 etc) and handle the first row which contains the column names.
I had trouble implementing the solution here - I could follow the instructions, but it only gave new errors.
I solved my conversion issues by using a Data Conversion entity. This can be found on the SSIS Toolbox under Data Flow Transformations. I placed the Data Conversion between my Excel Source and OLE DB Destination, linked Excel to Data C, Data C to OLE DB, double clicked Data C to bring up a list of the data columns. Gave the problem column a new Alias, and changed the Data Type column.
Lastly, in the Mappings of the OLE DB Destination, use the Alias column name, rather than the original Excel column name. Job done.
You can use a Data Conversion component to convert to the desired data types.