We found a problem with some content when opening excel file (using Output)

[crtakacs]

I've seen a few posts about this error message but nothing that I could use as a solution. 

I'm outputting to an excel sheet and specifying that cell range to output to. I'm not sure if it's worth noting that the range I specify in the workflow is much larger than the actual range as I don't ever have the exact same range each time I output. 

I've tried creating a completely new Excel file, and I've tried using both .xlsm and .xlsx. It always opens correctly the first time I run and open the worksheet (after creating a new file to use). And it looks just how I need it to look. But anytime I run again and open I get the error message. 

I've tried running from both Designer and from the gallery. 

Any ideas? 

[benmillea]

I don't know if you ever got to the bottom of this one, but I had the same error message on a file I was outputting yesterday. After a bit of messing around, I figured out that it was down to a VLOOKUP formula that I had accidentally left in one of my sheets that I was overwriting. I copied the data in that field and pasted as special values (text) over the top to remove the formula. When I run the workflow and open the spreadsheet now, I don't get the error message. Do you have any formulae in the fields that you are trying to overwrite?

[Mohak]

Hey guys,

I was able to resolve the same issue which was causing an excel error.

The sheet I was trying to read had an embedded object. So instead of reading the whole sheet, when I read only the rows with data- it solved the issue.

the object in discussion was a box with text added in it

[DawnDuong]

hi @crtakacs 

Just checking if you have done further processing to the Excel output file?

For example:

- data is output to Table "datatable" in tab "Data". Then the "datatable" drives a pivot table on another tab?

- data is output to Table "datatable" in tab "Data". Then formatting to added to this table e.g. highlight header rows, colour coded etc...?

I found that doing the above causes the issues mentioned in your post and that can be fixed by selecting the option to preserve the formatting in excel (https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Excel-output-to-formatted-sheet/td-p/5....).

Dawn.

[GideonM]

First i tried writing to existing sheet with a range but did not work, later I had to specify/create a new sheet in excel without providing range. This worked for me, no more error. Hope this helps in any way :)

Error statement (writing to existing sheet):

...............".xlsx|||'ManaulRateCheck$L1:P1'" 

Solution statement (writing to new sheet):

..............".xlsx|||SpotRateCheck" 

[amadra]

I had the same issue. After 1 hour of troubleshooting, it seems like the issue is the way Alteryx writes to the sheet name.

Old sheet name: "Regulatory Capital-30daysMetric"
New sheet name: "Regulatory Capital 30 days"

Although, just changing the sheet name didn't resolve the issue. I created a new output file with the same file name (deleted the old one) and wrote to the new file (& new sheet name) and it worked!

[CFRugh]

Having the same issue. Has anyone found a solution to this problem? 

[BobbySweaters]

Another issue Alteryx stopped resolving. Sounds like they're done. Thanks!

[VP29]

IF you write into a template: make sure that the data types in the template for each column (and row) is aligned (ie values are numbers, headers, titles, referential data are text in the template file). Then using special characters is ok - as long as you use V_WString