Re: IBM i database to Excel spreadsheet

[Gad Miron <gadmiron@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Elden

We use GUMBO's Excel-erator <http://www.gumbo.com/Licpgm/Excelerator.html> for
several years and it works fine for us.
See http://www.gumbo.com/

Regards
Gad



date: Wed, 30 Nov 2016 09:12:21 -0800
> from: Elden Fenison <Elden.Fenison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> subject: IBM i database to Excel spreadsheet
>
> I'd like to figure out a better way to get data from an IBM i database
> file into an Excel spreadsheet.
>
> We are currently using an open source tool apparently written by Hideyuki
> Yahagi. It will take an IBM i database and create a CSV file. We land that
> on a QNTC file system (on a Windows server) where the user goes and grabs
> it. The user then imports the CSV file into an XLS file via Excel.
>
> The problem we face is that the CSV format doesn't retain any real
> information with regards to column formatting. So when we try to import the
> CSV to an XLS, Excel tries to guess about the column formatting to where
> fields that appear that they could be valid dates (but are not) are brought
> in as a date data type. The only way we've found around this is to tell the
> import process what the format should be for each column, every time we
> need to import from CSV to Excel. We think that exporting directly from the
> IBM i database to an XLS format might be allow us to retain the column
> formatting so that we don't have to go through all those hoops.
>
> So I am seeking a way to go directly from the IBM i database to an Excel
> spreadsheet. If there are no free solutions, we would definitely consider a
> paid solution.
>
> Ideas?
>
> Elden Fenison
> Programmer/Analyst
> Murphy Company