populating an Excel spreadsheet beneath header rows

  • Hello, trying to use SSIS to populate a spreadsheet is a labor for Hercules. Why Microsoft, with all its billions in the bank, can't make this easier for developers is a mystery.

    I have spent most of the day resolving two instances of the error identified as "The external column F11 needs to be removed from the external columns." I just kept on deleting my data flow tasks and recreating them for hours. On both occasions the error suddenly disappeared. I believe a particular sequence has to be followed to handle that error but I don't know what it is.

    I'm now at a point where my package is filling a spreadsheet with data but it begins with Row #2. A poster named 'Grasshopper' had the same issue, post #: #871094:

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic866686-364-1.aspx

    Does anyone know how to get SSIS to begin writing to row 3? In the control flow of my package I have a Data Flow task. In it, I have an ADO.NET source that pulls columns from a view. Then I have a Data Conversion that converts the data to Unicode. I renamed the Unicode columns to have identical names as the original columns from the view. In my Excel Destination task, in "Data access mode" I chose SQL command. I have tried many, many different variations of my command. Currently it is: select * from [Excel_Destination$A4:M4]

    In the mapping part of the Excel Destination editor I have chosen the data that came from the Data Conversion task.

    Is it possible to begin writing the data in Row 3? If so, how is it accomplished? Many thanks if you can help!

  • I learned that it is best to use OLEDB as the source for the Data Flow task that fills the spreadsheet via the Excel Destination task. This may seem obvious to many, but I was using an ADONET data source because it helps me elsewhere. Using OLEDB for the Data Flow task really makes the process of identifying data columns, converting them to Unicode and sending them to the Excel Destination task more smooth.

    Now if I can figure out how to write the data to row 3 of my spreadsheet. This shouldn't be THAT hard. Microsoft has more wealth than many countries. How come this is so hard to accomplish? Many thanks for anyone who offers the answer.

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