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Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

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Unexpected output in xls file format

Will_Cheng
6 - Meteoroid

Hi Everyone, 

 

I am trying to create a workflow to extract data and overwrite a xls file to keep the data up-to-date with formula contains. I downloaded the Access Driver and there is no issue on writing data, but the output format look weird and i hope someone can advise. 

 

I am targeting to over sheet "Data2"

Will_Cheng_0-1644332225657.png

 

 

Formula tab:

Will_Cheng_1-1644332258245.png

 

Data1:

Will_Cheng_2-1644332279998.png

 

Data 2:

Will_Cheng_3-1644332295445.png

 

I would like to replace 100 in Data 2, and my expected result is "2" will change to "100"

Will_Cheng_4-1644332436779.png

 

and this is my output configuration, i select output options = overwrite sheet as same as xlsx format. 

Will_Cheng_5-1644332580816.png

 

After running the workflow, i do see "2" is gone but "100" is placed in cell A3, and my formula cannot read it because it fixed to read cell A2

Will_Cheng_6-1644332706181.png

 

When i continue to run the workflow, the data will continue to move downward

Will_Cheng_7-1644332902219.png

 

Did i setup something wrong? Or is there any workaround i can make sure the data will place in the right place?

 

Thanks a lot!

 

 

3 REPLIES 3
SoccerTil
8 - Asteroid

sorry to say, I can easily repeart your problem. I tried a few workarounds that resulted in other errors or abnormal behavior. Might be a bug or a problem with reading and writing from the same spreadsheet in the same workflow. I converted the speadsheet to an XLSX but had to add a Block Until Done to avoid currency issues. The workflow ran successfully. Can you convert the file?

 

SoccerTil_0-1644335379402.png

 

Will_Cheng
6 - Meteoroid

I know convert to xlsx is the easiest way, i also know we have some many people interact with that xls file, i dont want to change the format that could cause lots of error. In this case, overwrite the tab but not changing anything else is my intend. 

SoccerTil
8 - Asteroid

This sounds like a bug. If you write a new sheet the data is fine. You could go to an extreme length to create a new sheet, drop the old sheet, and rename the new sheet. That would involve some fancy macros or python code. So I'd start with opening a bug.

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