export to excel options
Hi - export to excel is a great feature. if it could be extended in 2 ways it would be even better.
copy the sql used to produce the results (and date, server info) into a separate tab called 'sql' or something. this way data extracts will be 'auditable' and re-runnable.
have some export options (top row = bold, highlighted, freeze top row). column autowidths applied.
the second one can be done with a macro in the excel template but would be a nice to have.
ben b
shared this idea
-
Josh Hansen commented
I think it would be a better option to create a data connection with the query populated. That way you can refresh the export and do more with the data. I also think that excel would freak out with having the query pasted into another tab. (I've tried that but excel doesn't like commented out lines, so I used to put the query in a text box in another tab. Now I just create a data connection and paste the query into it and pull the data directly from within excel.)
-
Ivar
commented
I vote for nr 1. It's always my first task after exporting to excel to move the code as well.
-
ben b
commented
It would also be good if there was an option, "export to excel: transposed".
If I am exploring data with a user or doing a gap analysis between two datasets, I will do a SELECT TOP 1 * FROM X, then export to excel and transpose the data (and add headers). This gives me a list of all the columns in the table/results-set and an example value.
I especially do this on really wide tables. It's like a first step in a manual data-profiling exercise.
it could be launched from the results-grid or the object-explorer.
-
Megan Moss
commented
It would also be nice to be able to select an option to export NULL fields as NULL and not as blanks.