no matter how large the destination column eg. nvarchar(max), excel source choke on column

  • the answer to my registry question is:

    To change the value of TypeGuessRows, use these steps: 1.On the Start menu, click Run. In the Run dialog box, type Regedt32, and then click OK.

    2.Open the following key in the Registry editor:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Excel

    Note For 64-bit systems, the corresponding key is as follows:

    HKLM\SOFTWARE\wow6432node\microsoft\jet\4.0\engines\excel <---except this should be: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/wow6432Node/Microsoft/Jet/4.0/engines/

    3.Double-click TypeGuessRows.

    4.In the DWORD editor dialog box, click Decimal under Base. Type a value between 0 and 16, inclusive, for Value data.

    5.Click OK, and then exit the Registry Editor.

  • You don't need to modify the registry, in fact I would discourage it so let's see if we can avoid it. If you modify the outputs for the Excel Source you should be able to overcome the issue.

    There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community.
    --Plato

  • David Webb-CDS (5/16/2013)


    Are you sure it's choking on the destination? In the advanced editor, you might want to check both the external column and the output column on the excel spreadsheet and the external column on the destination. These default to 50, IIRC, and may need to be altered if the column is larger.

    OK. I've gone to the excel source and sorted it in descending order so that the top row contains the following for the offending column. (BTW this is happening for two columns actually, but I've got them both unmapped, and am tackling them separately.

    Column: "Asset description" column's first record looks like this:

    shop air compressor - Speedaire State of Washington pressure vessel ID = 33501-03W

    shop air compressor - Speedaire State of TX pressure vessel ID = 38801-03W

    I've saved this excel file and headed over to Excel Sources Advanced Editor.

    First of all, I can't change the metadata for external columns on Excel source. They revert. So, I don't understand that piece of advice. Next, I do not know what '50, IIRC' is referring to. My defaults are Unicode string [DT_WSTR] 255. I am able to change only the output of Excel Source and Inputs of subsequent transforms. But data isn't leaving Excel source....

  • shop air compressor - Speedaire State of Washington pressure vessel ID = 33501-03W

    looks like browser is converting the characters in my excel from HTML to human readable code. No matter what I do, I can't show you exactly what's in my excel source, but it's not pretty. It's html gobbelty goop

    the asset description is actually populated with a bunch of hash marks, ampersands, and semi colons, all of which disappear into nice html when I click save.....

  • Post a sample of your Excel file, attached to this thread.

    There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community.
    --Plato

  • KoldCoffee (5/16/2013)


    shop air compressor - Speedaire State of Washington pressure vessel ID = 33501-03W

    looks like browser is converting the characters in my excel from HTML to human readable code. No matter what I do, I can't show you exactly what's in my excel source, but it's not pretty. It's html gobbelty goop

    the asset description is actually populated with a bunch of hash marks, ampersands, and semi colons, all of which disappear into nice html when I click save.....

    I know you don't want to hear from me but two things, the first a question. Do you see the same gobbelty goop in other rows for the same column or in the other column you are having problems with?

    Second, those characters we don't see when you post are two carrage return-linefeed combinations (could see them when I clicked to quote reply just to see what was there).

  • I've attached a sample of my source Excel 97-2003 file, 20 rows and a good portion of the columns including the offending columns: Asset Comments and Asset Description.

  • I've had the problem with the column metadata reverting too. It usually happens when I've built the package by going through the import wizard and saved it to work on later. The only way I got around it was to start over and build the package from scratch in Visual Studio. Don't know why that happens. (IIRC is just shorthand for 'if I recall correctly').


    And then again, I might be wrong ...
    David Webb

  • I did build it from scratch in BIDS 2010 (did not use import export wizard).

  • Going out on a limb here and replying again. Take a sample of the spreadsheet, clean up the offending columns by replacing the & #13;& #10;& #13;& #10; (put a space after the & so you could see them in the post) with a space. Then use that file as a source to your SSIS package and see if it works.

    Pretty sure that the html encoded carrage return/line feeds are your problem.

  • anyone have a better idea? Obviously, this isn't feasible long term solution. Clearly the problem is with columns containing the html characters in the problem columns. Need excel source to bring them in.

  • FYI, looks like you have embedded <cr><lf> in other rows as well.

    Looking to see if there is an other alternative but haven't found anything yet myself. Hopefully some one else will.

  • So folks, I take it, from the lack of response, that importing from excel columns of data containing all those characters we associate with html source code isn't going to work.

    Case closed?

    Funny thing is, for the sake of showing how much better it will be going to the source directly created it's own set of data mapping errors. 🙂 But, I'm going to see if avoiding excel as source (which takes it's data from SQL anyway) is going to prove faster.

  • opc.three (5/16/2013)


    The whole post is a good read, but section "The solution part III" pertains to your issue specifically:

    http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/DataMgmt/ssis-1/what-s-the-deal-with

    Link appears broken.

    Edit: Apparently my attempt to fix didn't help either.

  • Weird. Link works for me, still.

    Kold Koffee. We're volunteers so the lack of a response within a few minutes ir even hours just means we may have had to do something for $ before we could get back to your issue. I will have a look tonight or tomorrow morning at the file you posted.

    There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community.
    --Plato

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 51 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply