Skip to main content
Question

excel found unreadable content

  • February 20, 2014
  • 5 replies
  • 197 views
S
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • si
Hi, I am exporting a semi large dataset from FME workbench (2013 SP2) through a writer as xlsx format.

 

 

Excel is saying "Excel found unreadable content in 'Export.xlsx'. Do you want to recover etc". I say yes, but when I do try to recover, excel only recovers a small amount of the data.

 

 

I also get the following error in excel.

 

 

Errors were detected in file 'Export.xlsx':

 

Removed Part: /xl/sharedStrings.xml part with XML error.  (Strings) Illegal xml character. Line 1, column 55442.

 

Removed Records: Cell information from /xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml part

 

 

Inspector with FME shows all the expected data.

 

I can reload the file back into FME and all the expected data is there.

 

 

Why is the data not exporting correctly?

 

Any ideas?

 

5 replies

david_r
Evangelist
  • david_rEvangelist
  • February 20, 2014
Hi,

 

 

try opening the XML file with e.g. Notepad++ and go to column 55442. Give or take a few characters both ways, is there anything there that looks out of place?

 

 

David
S
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • si
  • Author
  • February 20, 2014
It isn't human readable, it is an excel file not XML.
david_r
Evangelist
  • david_rEvangelist
  • February 20, 2014
Hi,

 

 

sorry, should have specified that you have to unzip the XSLX file first.

 

 

Unzip the file /xl/sharedStrings.xml and open it with Notepad++ (or equivalent).

 

 

It might be the case of an invalid character or an encoding error in the XML.

 

 

David
S
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • si
  • Author
  • February 20, 2014
My original file is Export.xlsx , it is an excel.

 

I cannot unzip it.

 

The file is not human readable in Notepad ++. 

 

 

I understand there may be an invalid xml character in my data, but surely FME should be able to process and export invalid xml characters to excel format?

 

 

david_r
Evangelist
  • david_rEvangelist
  • February 20, 2014
Hi,

 

 

an XLSX is simply a zip archive with a different extension. If you have trouble unzipping it, change the extension from .xlsx to .zip and try again.

 

 

Your best best is definitely to upgrade to FME 2013 SP4. There were a few bugs in the early versions of the new Excel writer introduced in FME 2013, and although I cannot say for sure if this is one of them, there should be a good chance of this bug already being corrected in SP4.

 

 

If the bug is still present in SP4, consider sending the file to Safe support for analysis.

 

 

David

Reply


Helpful Members This Week

Community Stats

30,918
Posts
117,142
Replies
38,721
Members

Latest FME

Terms & ConditionsCookie settings

Cookie policy

We use cookies to enhance and personalize your experience. If you accept you agree to our full cookie policy. Learn more about our cookies.

 
Cookie settings
A product of
Safe Software respectfully acknowledges that we live, learn and work on the traditional and unceded territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, and Semiahmoo First Nations.