I'm creating a SSIS Package to export Data from a SQL Server Table into an Excel Sheet. My Table has one column of datatype VARCHAR(MAX). And this column can have data as big as 30,000 characters sometimes. So I used a Data Conversion block to convert that column's DataType from it's original datatype text stream [DT_TEXT] to Unicode text stream [DT_NTEXT]. But when I execute the Package, I get this error An error occurred while setting up a binding for the "MyColumnName" column. The binding status was "DT_NTEXT".
I googled a lot but I couldn't get an answer to my problem. I'd appreciate all the help that I could get.
You can skip the data conversion task and just force the type when you extract from SQL Server SELECT CAST(MyBigColumn AS nvarchar(max)) As MyBigColumnUnicode but you're going to run into the problem that a cell in Excel cannot hold 100k characters.
Total number of characters that a cell can contain: 32,776
Excel specifications and limits
I have some excel data which contains scientific numbers like 5e+00.
When the see the value in excel by clicking edit button I can see the full value. But when I import the data into table I am getting the data loaded as Null. I need to import the data without doing any changes in excel. Please suggest how to do it in SSIS.
I tried imported by changing the format in excel side. I want it to be done in ssis level without doing any changes in excel
Data in my Column as
Amounts
15880
5e+19
57892
I expect the output should be like as follows
1588007
500000000019
57892
But I am getting Null value for second item
Please suggest.
In the question above, there are 2 problems:
Numbers are shown in scientific format
Data is replaced by Null values while importing
Scientific Format issue
You mentioned that:
I tried imported by changing the format in excel side. I want it to be done in SSIS level without doing any changes in excel
Unfortunately, this cannot be done without changing the Excel file, since the only way to solve this issue is to change the Number Format property of the cells. You can automate this step by adding a Script Task that uses Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll assembly to automate this process instead of doing it manually from Excel.
You can refer to the following post as an example:
Format excel destination column in ssis script task
But make sure to use:
m_XlWrkSheet.Columns(1).NumberFormat = "0"
To force a Numeric format.
Null Values issue
This issue is caused by the OLE DB provider used to read from Excel files, This error occurs when the Excel column contains mixed data types, the OLE DB provider read the values with dominant data types and replace all other values with Nulls.
You can refer to the following links for more information/workarounds:
Importing Excel Data Seems to Randomly Give Null Values
SQL JOIN on varchar with special characters and leading zeros
Dynamically Creating Excel table through SSIS
Good day to you, Experts.
I'm stuck on a problem I'm having with an Excel 97-02 .xls file.
When adding it as a source in SSIS, I'm getting an External Columns Datatype of DT_IMAGE .
The column represents an ID and is numeric only. I can't extract and work with the data because of the DT_IMAGE datatype.
Setting IMEX=1 didn't help.
Thank you in advance.
Reading Excel files in SSIS is done using OLEDB provider which may not detect the appropriate Excel column type.
There are many other questions mentioning similar issues such as:
SSIS Excel Import Forcing Incorrect Column Type
SSIS Excel Data Source - Is it possible to override column data types?
SSIS keeps force changing excel source string to float
As you mentioned in the question, if you added ;Extended Properties="IMEX=1" to the connectionstring with no luck then i think there is 4 things you can try:
Sorting column data inside Excel
Change the entire column formatting manually
Go to the advanced editor on the Excel source >> into the output column list and set the type for each of the columns.
Adding IMEX=1; MAXROWSTOSCAN=0 to the connectionstring
If nothing of the above steps worked then you should save the Excel sheet as a text file and then you use Flat File Connection manager
I am using a SSIS Data Flow Task to export data from SQL Server to an Excel destination, but while exporting it converts int values to "Numbers Stored As Text" Excel cells and every cell gets this error "number stored as text" with a green tag.
Can you please guide me how I can export my int values from SQL Server to a number in Excel?
Thanks
The solution that has worked for me is to add numeric values to the numeric columns so that it knows to format the destination as numeric in your template sheet. You can either hide the values or overwrite them with the new data that you are posting to the file.
So essentially just add a row with template data and formatting and hide that row. When the import occurs, it will copy the first (hidden) row formatting.
as you are importing the values to a excel their should be data conversion, if not you will get an error.
Please see the link below for more details:
Error converting data types when importing from Excel to SQL Server 2008
Warm Regards
Safi
I am trying to export data from SQL server 2008 to Excel file using BIDS.
One of the fields 'DESCRIPTION' coming from SQL database is VARCHAR(4000).
I can export everything to excel but the 'DESCRIPTION' field size in excel is restricted to unicode 255 and no mater what I try it does not allow me to export the data over 255 characters (exports it as blank). I tried to change SQL field as varchar(max) or ntext but none of attempts worked. I used advanced editor in BIDS on excel destination to change 'DESCRIPTION' character length manually but as soon as I hit 'OK', it resets to unicode 255.
Could anybody please help me to resolve this issue?
Thanks,
Vishal
So, I did some testing. Excel data transformation is funky but I came up with a solution. I created an excel spreadsheet with fields as needed. I then created fake, dummy data in excel with character length far greater than 255 and hid the row. I then did the SSIS data transformation to the excel spreadsheet which worked. It's a weird and not preferable option but it works.
Problem: Excel only accepts 255 chars per cell when I attempt to use Excel Destination in SSIS (2008 R2) from a sql server table. SalesForce data loader would not accept CSV (with “” text qualifiers) created by
ssis flat file connection manager. SalesForce will only accept CSV (with “” text qualifiers). SalesForce will accept CSV as exported by Excel (2010).
Solution:
1. Create your excel connection manager, set name/path of the destination EXCEL file in your “Excel Destination Data Flow Competent” and map meta-data.
2. Open a new Excel file, remove all extra “sheets”, rename “sheet1” to that was created in step#1, above, select all cells and format to “text”, add all the column header names to the first row of your template sheet. In the columns that need to hold more data than 255 limit, paste in any characters that exceed your limit by 50% (just in case). These columns are now configured to hold your large data. Save the file, naming it something like TEMPLATE_Excel_forLargeCellValues.xlsx
3. Copy this template into your DESTINATION connection: Before your “Excel Destination Data Flow Competent” in the SSIS Control Flow, create a new “File System Task”. Create an ssis pkg level variable to hold the path/filename of your template excel file. In your “File System Task” set “IsSourcePathVariable” = TRUE, set “SourceVariable” to User::Template_Excel. Set “IsDestinationPathVariable” = FALSE, and set “DestinationConnection” = from step #1 above. Set “Operation” = Copy file. “OverwriteDestination”=TRUE. This will now copy your formatted Excel workbook/sheet into your destination folder with the file name you designated in step #1 above and because you put a larger amount of sample data in the columns that require more than 255 chars, all your data will fit.
Note: It is not necessary to delay validation on any components.
You're saying that the excel field is set to 255 right? Changing the SQL field won't have an effect on excel, you'd have to modify the excel file.
I don't believe you can modify the Excel output column to write more than 255 characters. Why not simply write your output to a csv, it can be opened and later modified in Excel anyway.
SSIS excel engine recognizes datatype of first 8 rows and assigns it to excel source or destination automatically. Even defining the excel column as memo wont work. I tried to resolve the error by changing registry value TypeGuessRows of excel engine but it did not work either. So I was not left with any other option but to create a dummy row(2nd row) with more than 255 characters and hide it.Excel source then identify the column with unicode text stream. You have to write some logic in SSIS package to exclude this row if you are trying to import the data from excel. I heard that this issue is resolved in excel versions on and after 2010. But BIDS 2008 does not have option to choose any version after 2007 so this is the only solution if you are working with BIDS 2008 and excel.
You have to select Microsoft Excel 97-2003 and use the xls as file extension in your file name for destination.
I got the same issue of the excel destination not allowing more than 255 characters. After spending almost a day, I tried adding more characters (to simplify, I added spaces more than 255) in the header of the column that has the issue with more than 255 characters. And it magically worked!
You can insert dummy data (260 characters) to under head column you want in your excel (Execute SQL Task)
Script Create and insert
CREATE TABLE `YourSheet` (`myColumn260char` LongText)
GO
INSERT INTO YourSheet(myColumn260char) Values('....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................')
And you can delete dummy row after imported.