Excel crashing with ODBC

[gambcl]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I am using the latest version of the Actual ODBC driver for sqlite3 to access external data in a fresh and fully patched Excel 2008.

I can enter my SQL query, click Test and see the results I expect, but frequently Excel crashes when getting the data, nearly every time!

If Excel does manage to get the data into a sheet, the column seems to be truncated at 9 characters, whereas the Test button shows full-length values.

Can anyone help me get sqlite/ODBC/Excel playing well together.

I've only had Office 2008 installed for 10 minutes and I already regret buying it. I have never had so many crashes in such a short time.

gambcl

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I am using the latest version of the Actual ODBC driver for sqlite3 to access external data in a fresh and fully patched Excel 2008.

I can enter my SQL query, click Test and see the results I expect, but frequently Excel crashes when getting the data, nearly every time!

If Excel does manage to get the data into a sheet, the column seems to be truncated at 9 characters, whereas the Test button shows full-length values.

Can anyone help me get sqlite/ODBC/Excel playing well together.

I've only had Office 2008 installed for 10 minutes and I already regret buying it. I have never had so many crashes in such a short time.

gambcl

Hi,

Baased on what you said, the problem is most likely something amiss in
the ODBC driver.

Please take a moment to contact Actual Technology's support. Be sure to
include the exact SQL command you were trying to create, the kind of
database that is being used as a data source, and other pertinenet
information.

I've reported bugs to them in the past and they responded very quickly
and have patched the driver appropriately.

If you post to this forum the SQL query that caused the problem then
other people can try to run the same query and see if they also get the
crash or incomplete return of data.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9

 

[gambcl]

Hi,

I emailed Actual and they have just updated their driver.

I have just tried it and it does seem to have fixed the truncation issue, but I still get Excel crashes when it is returning
the data to Excel.

I am using a SQL query like:
select distinct(Region) from SalesReports order by Region

Regards,

gambcl

 

[Pat McMillan]

Could you send me the full crash log from Excel (click More Info in the
Microsoft Error Reporting window, then copy/paste the whole file)? I can
have someone here investigate.

Thanks,

Pat McMillan
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Jonathan Monroe]

Could you send me the full crash log from Excel (click More Info in the
Microsoft Error Reporting window, then copy/paste the whole file)? I can
have someone here investigate.

We're able to reproduce the crash here. It definitely looks like it's
the driver's fault. We will have a fix as soon as we can determine
the cause.

Jonathan Monroe
Actual Technologies - ODBC for Mac OS X
www.actualtechnologies.com

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

I emailed Actual and they have just updated their driver.

I have just tried it and it does seem to have fixed the truncation issue, but I still get Excel crashes when it is returning
the data to Excel.

I am using a SQL query like:
select distinct(Region) from SalesReports order by Region

Regards,

gambcl

Hi gambcl

Thank you for following my advice. As you can see, both Microsoft and
Actual Technologies have been extremely responsive to your request. Both
companies are doing everything possible to help Mac customers.

I am fortunate enough to have met both Pat and Jonathan. I am confident
that they will do everything possible to promptly rectify the problem.
Not only are they brilliant, they're both really great people.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9

 

[gambcl]

Hi,

I now have an updated driver from Actual which has fixed the crashing issues.

However I can't seem to do anything with the numbers that come back from my ODBC source. I see them on the sheet fine, but if I try to sum(A1:A20) for example, I get zero. If I try to make a chart I get zero data values.

Do I have to do something special to make Excel recognise a column of numbers as numeric?
I have tried the cell formatting but it didn't make any difference.

I have never fought so hard with an office suite before :-(

Hoping someone can help,

Charles

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

I now have an updated driver from Actual which has fixed the crashing issues.

However I can't seem to do anything with the numbers that come back from my ODBC source. I see them on the sheet fine, but if I try to sum(A1:A20) for example, I get zero. If I try to make a chart I get zero data values.

Do I have to do something special to make Excel recognise a column of numbers as numeric?
I have tried the cell formatting but it didn't make any difference.

I have never fought so hard with an office suite before :-(

Hoping someone can help,

Charles

Hi,

By any chance are the numbers in the data source in a column that is
defined as text?

The ODBC driver is supposed to bring them into Excel as text if they are
coming from a data source that has a text label as the data type. The
behavior you are describing for Excel is correct for numbers being
treated as text.

On the other hand, if you are certain that the data in the data source
is defined as numeric, then let Jonathan know so he can fix the driver.
In this case it indicates the driver is changing the data type from
numeric to text before delivering the data to Excel.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9