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Question

Writing an Excel formula where Use attribute names as column positions is set to yes not working

  • October 11, 2019
  • 6 replies
  • 310 views

annette2
Contributor
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Hi,

I have a complex Excel report that we have worked on for half a year on and off as part of an ArcGIS Survey123 project.

 

The users have requested a formula in the Excel. I am using attribute names as column positions and have not been able to get it working.

I have tested it in an apart workspace:

This works:

 

This does not work:

 

I get the error which I would expect: 2019-10-11 16:24:04| 2.5| 0.0|ERROR |Excel Writer: Column name 'Q.formula' for sheet 'Sheet1' could not be used as a column position. It either contains non-alphabetic characters or is beyond the maximum column of XFD for XLSX or IV for XLS

 

If Q.formula is not present in the output feature class than the formula does not write either.

 

Is there a way to write a formula to an Excel sheet using the Use attribute Names As Column Positions parameter = Yes?

 

6 replies

todd_davis
Supporter
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  • Supporter
  • October 11, 2019

I agree, it doesn't work. That error message even comes if you read and write an excel with fomulas dynamically (with column names as column position set to Yes). I can understand why the catch it as an error, but Safe probably need to take into account the .formula, .formatting, .hyperlink options.

Looks like you might need to write that formula as part of another featurewriter doing an update, with column position set to No.


annette2
Contributor
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  • Author
  • Contributor
  • October 14, 2019
todd_davis wrote:

I agree, it doesn't work. That error message even comes if you read and write an excel with fomulas dynamically (with column names as column position set to Yes). I can understand why the catch it as an error, but Safe probably need to take into account the .formula, .formatting, .hyperlink options.

Looks like you might need to write that formula as part of another featurewriter doing an update, with column position set to No.

Thanks Todd for confirming. I tried a second writer today but we don't have any column names, just a header with varying fields and values. I tried some workarounds based on this idea unsuccessfully. The number of rows written is also dynamic and they wanted the formula to be added in the last row of the report.

A different workaround is to add the results to the header via a fixed formula in the template. Luckily they just want to sum a few columns so I think I can use a simple formula such as =SUM(BD:BD) in the template header. I will do a full test tomorrow and see if this will act as an acceptable workaround.

Thanks again for your help,

Annette


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  • January 11, 2021

@Todd Davis​ 

Any updates here?

Would we be able to Use attribute names as column positions with formulas?

 

really need this feature to work

 

Yarko


chrisatsafe
Contributor
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  • Contributor
  • January 13, 2021
ukrsolid wrote:

@Todd Davis​ 

Any updates here?

Would we be able to Use attribute names as column positions with formulas?

 

really need this feature to work

 

Yarko

Hi Yarko,

 

It looks like this still isn't working. I did a test with another letter, M, to see if it was just being caused by Q and it appears that other letters do not cause the same error. However, when using M as the column position, the output was written to the L column which is still not correct. I've filed an issue report with our development team to resolve this issue.

 

Please let me know if you'd like me to link you to the issue so you are notified via email when it is resolved or submit a case requesting to be linked to FMEENGINE-68216.

 

Apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused @ukrsolid​, @Todd Davis​, and @annette2


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  • January 14, 2021
chrisatsafe wrote:

Hi Yarko,

 

It looks like this still isn't working. I did a test with another letter, M, to see if it was just being caused by Q and it appears that other letters do not cause the same error. However, when using M as the column position, the output was written to the L column which is still not correct. I've filed an issue report with our development team to resolve this issue.

 

Please let me know if you'd like me to link you to the issue so you are notified via email when it is resolved or submit a case requesting to be linked to FMEENGINE-68216.

 

Apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused @ukrsolid​, @Todd Davis​, and @annette2

@chrisatsafe​  please link me to the issue

Thanks

 

Yarko


chrisatsafe
Contributor
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  • Contributor
  • January 14, 2021
chrisatsafe wrote:

Hi Yarko,

 

It looks like this still isn't working. I did a test with another letter, M, to see if it was just being caused by Q and it appears that other letters do not cause the same error. However, when using M as the column position, the output was written to the L column which is still not correct. I've filed an issue report with our development team to resolve this issue.

 

Please let me know if you'd like me to link you to the issue so you are notified via email when it is resolved or submit a case requesting to be linked to FMEENGINE-68216.

 

Apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused @ukrsolid​, @Todd Davis​, and @annette2

Done, you'll receive an email notification once the status of the reported issue changes.


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