Been investigating for a while now and keep hitting a brick wall. I am importing from xls files into temp tables via the OpenRowset command. Now I have a problem where I’m trying to import a certain column has a range values but the most common are the following. Columns structured as long numbers i.e. 15598 and the some columns as strings i.e. 15598-E.
Now the openrowset is reading the string version no problem but is reporting the number version as a NULL. I read (http://www.sqldts.com/254.aspx ) that openrowset has that issue and the author speaks of implementing “HDR=YES;IMEX=1” into the query string but that’s not working for me at all.
Have any of you guys every encountered this?
Just some more info as well. I may not do this with the JET engine (Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0) so this is what my query looks like:
SELECT *
FROM
OPENROWSET('MSDASQL'
, 'Driver=Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls);HDR=YES;IMEX=1;DBQ=C:\ImportFile.xls;'
, 'SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]')
I notice you are using the Excel ODBC driver. Have you tried the JET OLEDB Provider with the equivalent connection string?
select * from openrowset(
'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0',
'Data Source=C:\ImportFile.xls;Extended Properties="Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=1"',
'SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]')
EDIT: Sorry, just noticed your last paragraph. Surely the Excel ODBC driver still goes via the JET engine, so what difference would it make?
EDIT: I have looked at the KB194124 link, and the registry values it recommends are the default values on my machine, which I have never changed. I have used the above method several times myself without problems. Maybe it's an environmental issue?
If you don't mind opening the file in Excel, take the columns that have the problem, select the column, and do
Data -> Text to Columns -> Next -> Next -> Text
Save the spreadsheet and they should all come in as Text in OPENROWSET
I've found using .CSV files instead of Excel, opened by setting up a Linked Server, and setting up the format of the files in schema.ini a more practical approach for handling imports like this, with that method you can explicitly choose each column's format.
We've come across the same issue. Unfortunately we've not found a solution either. There's more information here which indicates that there might be a registry fix.
I had the same problem. I fixed it cuting and pasting a row that contains a column with the string/numeric value (for example 123ABC) in the first row position of the sheet. For some reason T-SQL reads the first row and assumes that all the values are numeric.
Response by SqlACID in this link worked great [https://wikigurus.com/Article/Show/185717/OpenRowSet-command-in-TSQL-is-returning-NULLS] :-
If you don't mind opening the file in Excel, take the columns that have the problem, select the column, and do
Data -> Text to Columns -> Next -> Next -> Text
Save the spreadsheet and they should all come in as Text in OPENROWSET
I've found using .CSV files instead of Excel, opened by setting up a Linked Server, and setting up the format of the files in schema.ini a more practical approach for handling imports like this, with that method you can explicitly choose each column's format.
Related
I have a PostgreSQL database. I had to extend an existing, big table with a few more columns.
Now I need to fill those columns. I tought I can create an .csv file (out of Excel/Calc) which contains the IDs / primary keys of existing rows - and the data for the new, empty fields. Is it possible to do so? If it is, how to?
I remember doing exactly this pretty easily using Microsoft SQL Management Server, but for PostgreSQL I am using PG Admin (but I am ofc willing to switch the tool if it'd be helpfull). I tried using the import function of PG Admin which uses the COPY function of PostgreSQL, but it seems like COPY isn't suitable as it can only create whole new rows.
Edit: I guess I could write a script which loads the csv and iterates over the rows, using UPDATE. But I don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Edit2: I've found this question here on SO which provides an answer by using a temp table. I guess I will use it - although it's more of a workaround than an actual solution.
PostgreSQL can import data directly from CSV files with COPY statements, this will however only work, as you stated, for new rows.
Instead of creating a CSV file you could just generate the necessary SQL UPDATE statements.
Suppose this would be the CSV file
PK;ExtraCol1;ExtraCol2
1;"foo",42
4;"bar",21
Then just produce the following
UPDATE my_table SET ExtraCol1 = 'foo', ExtraCol2 = 42 WHERE PK = 1;
UPDATE my_table SET ExtraCol1 = 'bar', ExtraCol2 = 21 WHERE PK = 4;
You seem to work under Windows, so I don't really know how to accomplish this there (probably with PowerShell), but under Unix you could generate the SQL from a CSV easily with tools like awk or sed. An editor with regular expression support would probably suffice too.
I am producing a comma-separated file in S3 that needs to be copied to a staging table in a redshift database using the postgres COPY command.
It has one boolean field. With every sensible way I can think of to represent the boolean value in the file, redshift copy complains, usually with "Unknown boolean format".
I'm going to give up and change the staging table field to a smallint so that I can proceed with the copy and translate the value on the load from staging to the final redshift table, but I'm curious if anyone knows the correct incantation.
A zero or one works just fine for us.
Check your loads carefully, it may well be another issue that's 'pushing' invalid data into your boolean column.
For instance, we had all kinds of crazy characters embedded in our data that would cause errors like that. I eventually settled on using the US character for the record separator.
Check to make sure you're excluding the headers during the COPY command.
I ran into the same problem, but adding the ignoreheader 1 option (ignores 1 header line during import) solved the issue.
I have a Job in talend that inserts data into a table.
Can I get this SQL sentences (ie "insert into tabla(a,b)values(....)")?
You can see the data inserted by adding tLogRow but if you want to see the generated insert on real time you can use the debugger.
For example, for the following job:
Above you can see the data inserted from an excel file to a mysql table. This was generated using tLogRow. But if you want the sql generated sentence, by using the debug you can see it here:
Hope to help.
You could simply place a tLogRow component either before or after your database output component to log things to the console if you are interested in seeing what data is being sent to the database.
I think it's impossible to see (it could be nice as an improvement in new releases). My problem, was when I change de source of my database output (Oracle SID to Oracle RAC), the inserts were made in the older database.
I fix it change the xml code in the "item" file. With the change older params attached to Oracle SID were stil there.
Thanks a lot!! Have a nice weekend Goon10 and ydaetskcoR!
You can check the generated JAVA code. You'll see an:
INSERT INTO (columns) VALUES (?,?,?)
thats the insert preparedStatement. Talend uses preparedStatements to do the inserts, thus only 1 insert will be generated and sent. In the main part of the component it will call
setString(value,position)
Please refer to: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/jdbc/basics/prepared.html
I have an ssis package where I am using an OLEDB source linking to SQL Server 2005 table. All columns except a date column are NVARCHAR(255). I am using an Excel destination and using a SQL statement to create the sheet in the Excel workbook, the SQL is in the excel connection manager (effectively a create table statement that creates a sheet) and is derived from the mapping of the columns from the DB.
No matter what I have done I keep getting this unicode --> non-unicode conversion error between my source and destination. Tried conversion to string[DT_STR] between S > D, removed it, changed SQL Table VARCHAR to NVARCHAR and still get this flippin error.
Because I am creating the sheet in Excel with a SQL statement I do not see any way to actually pre-define what the data types of the columns will be in the Excel sheet. I imagine it would be a default meta data but I do not know.
So between my SQL table destination and the creation of my Excel sheet with this SSIS sql statement how can I stop this error coming up?
My error is:
Error at Data Flow Task [OLE DB Source [1]]: Column "MyColumn" cannot convert between unicode and non-unicode string data types.
And for all nvarchar columns.
Appreciate any help
Thanks
Andrew
The below Steps worked for me:
right click on source task.
click on "Show Advanced editor".
Go to "Input and Output Properties" tab.
select the output column for which you are getting the error.
Its data type will be "String[DT_STR]".
Change that data type to "Unicode String[DT_WSTR]".
save and close.
Add Data Conversion transformations to convert string columns from non-Unicode (DT_STR) to Unicode (DT_WSTR) strings.
You need to do this for all the string columns...
The missing piece here is Data Conversion object. It should be in between OLE DB Source and Destination object.
First, add a data conversion block into your data flow diagram.
Open the data conversion block and tick the column for which the error is showing. Below change its data type to unicode string(DT_WSTR) or whatever datatype is expected and save.
Go to the destination block. Go to mapping in it and map the newly created element to its corresponding address and save.
Right click your project in the solution explorer.select properties. Select configuration properties and select debugging in it. In this, set the Run64BitRunTime option to false (as excel does not handle the 64 bit application very well).
Instead of adding an earlier suggested Data Conversion you can cast the nvarchar column to a varchar column. This prevents you from having an unnecessary step and has a higher performance then the alternative.
In the select of your SQL statement replace date with CAST(date AS varchar([size])). For some reason this does not yet change the output data type. To do this do the following:
Right click your OLE DB Source step and open the advanced editor.
Go to Input and Output Properties
Select Output Columns
Select your column
Under Data Type Properties change DataType to string [DT_STR]
Change Length to the length you specified in your CAST statement
After doing this your source data will be output as a varchar and your error will disappear.
Source
I have been having the same issue and tried everything written here but it was still giving me the same error.
Turned out to be NULL value in the column which I was trying to convert.
Removing the NULL value solved my issue.
Cheers,
Ahmed
No-one seems to mention this but, converting varchar to nvarchar in the source query also solves the issue.
On the above example I kept losing the values, I think that delaying the Validation will allow the new data types to be saved as part of the meta data.
On the connection Manager for 'Excel Connection Manager' set the Delay Validation to False from the Properties.
Then on the data flow Destination task for Excel set the ValidationExternalMetaData to False, again from the properties.
This will now allow you to right click on the Excel Destination Task and go to Advanced Editor for Excel Destination --> far right tab - Input and Output Properties. In the External Columns folder section you will be able to now change the Data Types and Length values of the problematic columns and this can now be saved.
Good Luck!
I experienced this condition when I had installed Oracle version 12 client 32 bit client connected to an Oracle 12 Server running on windows.
Although both of Oracle-source and SqlServer-destination are NOT Unicode, I kept getting this message, as if the oracle columns were Unicode.
I solved the problem inserting a data conversion box, and
selecting type DT-STR (not unicode) for varchar2 fields and DT-WSTR (unicode) for numeric fields, then I've dropped the 'COPY OF' from the output field name.
Note that I kept getting the error because I had connected the source box arrow with the conversion box BEFORE setting the convertion types. So I had to switch source box and this cleaned all the errors in the destination box.
When creating table in SQL Server make your table columns NVARCHAR instead of VARCHAR.
I think people are missing this. In my case I had 100 character columns to convert between Oracle and MS Sql. All this stuff about Data Conversion and Advanced Editor is incredibly tedious if you have a 100 separate character columns to assign. Plus SSIS being SSIS, it will sometimes reset all your 100 advanced editor changes even if you set VALIDATEEXTERNALMETADATA to false, incredibly obnoxious. I wouldn't mind doing the Data Conversion if there was some value to it but 20 years ago ETL tools used to take oracle character to ms sql characters without fussing. What Bakalolo and Zafer say is the answer if you have a lot of character columns and you can live with nvarchar, just declare all your output ms sql columns (nvarchar) and your data task will automatically assign your oracle fields into ms sql fields with no manual overrides. I have also found that the new Oracle Source (2021) doesn't complain about a unicode conversion to varchar in ms sql. A colleague just told me that the ssis wizard (it may be only in vs 2019+) to assign oracle character to ms sql varchar will do the assignments automatically with no override, but I haven't tried that personally.
2022 update - I think this is just vs 2019 created packages and later. An ado.net task reading a varchar ms sql table going to oledb (and ado.net I think) ms sql varchar will throw the unicode error. If you switch the input task to oledb reading ms sql varchar table you won't have to do the advanced editor overrides for the varchar fields. If you don't want to do advanced editor overrides (who does?) try different tasks and more oledb tasks.
I just encounter same issue, I solve it in my SQL request : using convert directly
CONVERT(NVARCHAR(50),'') AS MyVarName
I need to put an empty (or fix size string) into excel file. Converting force type of MyVarName from DT-STR to DT-WSTR (unicode)
I know this is a very old post but I ran into the same issue and found that I had to manually select the conversion component output alias as the mapping in the excel destination component. Since the names of the OLE DB Source match the excel column names it was mapping it to the OLE DB and not to the Output Alias. Such as SourceID column from the OLE DB component being named Copy of SourceID after conversion. I don't see the original question saying they specifically selected the new alias name just that they mapped to DB columns. #Serge Voloshenko post comes the closest but also does not mention to make sure the mapping happens. To a new SSIS user this might be overlooked.
I've an SSIS dtsx package which is used to load data from a remote MAS db server using a DSN based connection. We load data from many tables into their replica tables in SQL-Server. Everything was working fine until we made some changes to a table in MAS. The dtsx has been failing with the following error:
Error: 0xC02090F8 at Data Flow Task, Import Data, DataReader Source
[28866]: The value was too large to fit in the output column
"UDF_TREAD_DEPTH" (29160).
Actually I believe it might be related to a single table field "UDF_TREAD_DEPTH" which is a decimal field. This field is shown in the DataReader source as "numeric [DT_NUMERIC]" with Length:0, Precision:4 & Scale:2.
In past we had simple data in format xx.xx. And now I see after the issue that we have data like xx.xx, xxx, .. however, still the data type didn't change after I refreshed the Data Reader source.
I believe the "Precision shud be updated to 5" for the data we have
based on this description.
I'm unable to change the data type as visible in the attached screen (Data Source Output column.png). When I debug this dtsx package, it errs while loading the Data Reader Source. If I'm nailing it right - how can I fix it. If there're any other possibilities then kindly let me know.
Have you tried to edit the source with the advanced editor? (Right click and select "Show Advanced Editor...") You can navigate to the Input and output parameters section (generally the last tab), go into the output columns section (for OLE DB, click the + next to OLE DB Source Output, then the plus next to Output Columns, then highlight the column name you want to change) and change the properties of the column in question (look for Data Type Properties and change Precision and scale as needed.). If you are not able to do that, you can try deleting the source and replacing it with a new source to the same data (ie the recreation of this object will requery the connection for column properties).
I got the data to be updated with the xxx.xx mask so 100 became 100.00. And this helped the DataReader in SSIS infer the type correctly.
In addition to it I also found another easy way of doing so which didn't require support of any cast / convert function -
UDF_TREAD_DEPTH * 1.00 as UDF_TREAD_DEPTH
This also allowed the DataReader to infer the type (i.e. precision & scale) correctly.