Hi
I'm trying to import a very simple ( 12 columns, no fancy formatting,
originally generated by export from Paradox ) .xls into a Paradox table.
However I constantly get an error "Unable to get table field descriptions"

I've found various references to this problem , for example this
http://tinyurl.com/cs8vkv says it should work if all refs to aliases are
removed.
I've reduced what I am trying to the bare minimum, based on that thread, but
still get the error.


var
dt DataTransfer
endvar

dt.setSource("C:\\SSin\\Feb09.xls")
dt.setDest ("C:\\SSin\\Feb09.db")
dt.setDestFieldNamesFromFirst(True)
dt.setProblems ( True )
dt.getSourceRange()
dt.transferData ( )

nor does
importSpreadSheet("C:\\SSin\\Feb09.xls","C:\\SSin\ \Feb09.db", "A1", "L300",
false)
work.

I would be really grateful for any ideas.

Excel 97 workbook,
Paradox 11 ( 11.0.0.300)
Win XP Prof sp3

thanks
Toby

1. Are you sure Excel hasn't conveniently saved the file as something newer
that Excel 5.0 without telling?

2. Are you sure the column headers in Excel are valid Paradox field names?

NOTE: Check bug PX0576 in Bertil's website: http://hem.bredband.net/bertilisberg/
(under current bugs). Is your spreadsheet read-only? Anywho, there are
a lot of bugs listed there, so just search the page for "spreadsheet" and
read them until you find a solution (or that there isn't a solution).

I believe Vladimir has a free library for dealing with Excel files: http://vmsoft.org/

Liz


"Toby Sleigh" <toby.sleigh (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Does Vladimir's library work with Pdox7/32?
I can not get it to work.
But it works with Pdox 9.

Jure


"Liz McGuire" <liz (AT) paradoxcommunity (DOT) com> je napisal v sporoèilo
news:49ad6d18$1 (AT) pnews (DOT) thedbcommunity.com ...

"Liz McGuire" <liz (AT) paradoxcommunity (DOT) com> wrote


1. I've tried save as to various versions, no difference.
2. Checked, plus the spreadsheet originated from a Paradox table.
3. I've checked through Bertil's bug list. I've tried
protecting/unprotecting, sticking the xls in the pdoxwin.exe directory etc.

I can't believe that a simple import from Excel should prove to be
impossible. I'll have a look at Vladimir's stuff next. Thanks.

Toby

Hate to repeat something, but the message you get indicates something wrong
when pdx attempts to identify how to format the fields. Now that could be
not recognizing the data, or simply not being able to name the field (altho
I thought it would default to something generic). YOu never responded to
Liz's question on field names. Could you list them here?
Once we see valid names are being used, the next ? would be - is the data
consistent across the board? I do believe that pdox may operate a lot like
excel and establish the "type" of each field by the contents of the first
row's cells. You may have to ensure that the first row in your .xls
contains representative data in each col so pdox has something to work with
from the start.

"Jim Giner" <jim.giner (AT) suny (DOT) edu> wrote

I did too, the field names came from the original Paradox table.

Could you list them here?

ok -

Job Number
Part Num
Model
QTY
Price
Availability
Date Ord
Ord by
Description
Our Ref
Bonded
ESCODid


Just in case I have tried renaming the column names to a,b,,,,,m , no
difference.
Then I deleted every column apart from the first column., no difference.


The first row contains representative data. I've seen the problem you refer
to before, when I've been importing manually, ie select then save as, when
the column contained serial numbers and the first row or two was by chance a
number, eg 1234567 then the next row was AB34567. The resultant table had
the column as a number field, rather than alpha. ( Or something like that ,
it was a while ago.)


All I want to do is export a small table to Excel, email the new spreadsheet
to a supplier, he fills in a couple of fields and sends the spreadsheet back
to us.

Toby Sleigh wrote:
Is 'Description" a multi-line field that could be interpretted differently
line-to-line from Excel? That's one of the common issues when going from
Excel to Paradox.

Are you importing to a NEW table each time, or an existing table? In other
words, is Paradox creating the table as it is bringing in the data? If so,
could you try bringing in the data to a table where you already have the
table/field definitions set as the data should be?


---------------
Tony McGuire
http://www.lostlore.com

As soon as I tried it out myself I remembered the problem.

Because EXCEL is processing the command first (on an export, I guess pdox
processes the command first), you CANNOT use an alias in the paths of the
file references in the command line - you must be explicit. Works great
after you change those.

Instead of
importspreadsheet(":myalias:myfile.xls",":myalias: myfile.db",........) you
must say
importspreadsheet("c:\\folder1\\subfolder1\\myfile .xls","c:\\folder1\\subfolder1\\myfile.db",.....)

One of those un-documented quirks.
"Toby Sleigh" <toby.sleigh (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Tony,

I think Tony's on to something. Does this table already exist? If so, try
a new table like 'Feb09Input.db' or so & see if it still squawks.

dt.setDest ("C:\\SSin\\Feb09Input.db")

HTH,
Jim Moseley

"Jim Giner" <jim.giner (AT) suny (DOT) edu> wrote

ummmm..
see my original post...............

var
dt DataTransfer
endvar

dt.setSource("C:\\SSin\\Feb09.xls")
dt.setDest ("C:\\SSin\\Feb09.db")
dt.setDestFieldNamesFromFirst(True)
dt.setProblems ( True )
dt.getSourceRange()
dt.transferData ( )

nor does
importSpreadSheet("C:\\SSin\\Feb09.xls","C:\\SSin\ \Feb09.db", "A1", "L300",
false)
work.

thanks anyway.