Report Format Considerations
Added August 2017
PRTXLS can process any kind of report, but it can only generate spreadsheets consisting of relatively uniform set of rows and columns. In order to accomplish that, it needs to start with a report that reasonably fits that description—i.e., one in which:
| • | The data lines are reasonably distinguishable from the non-data lines. |
| • | The data lines have a consistent set of non-overlapping columns. |
In some cases, particularly those where the column data is sparse, or not very consistent, or very crowded, PRTXLS may fail to correctly identify the column divisions. This will result in lumping two columns from the report into a single column in the spreadsheet, or vice versa. If you have such a report and are willing to make minor changes to your report layout to improve the conversion to XLS, the easiest thing to do is to create a separator line between the column headings and the column data, consisting of dashes, with a space at the end of each column. For example:
ItemNo Description QtyOnH Unit LastOrderDate YTDSales
------ ------------------ ------ ---- ------------- ----------
When PRTXLS sees this kind of header, it will assume that the breaks in the dashes mark the breaks in the columns. Otherwise, it will use a variety of heuristics for deciding how the columns are to be divided. Since alphanumeric data may contain spaces, and since it is not unusual for the same data to appear in many consecutive rows, PRTXLS will generally refrain from dividing columns that are separated by only a single blank space, especially if there are preceding columns that have multiple spaces of separation between them. So another simple adjustment you can make to a report layout so that it converts better would be to either allow at least two blank spaces between each column, or if you have to pack the columns closer, use one space consistently.
To assist in troubleshooting, A-Shell's debug function may be helpful. To turn it on, check the "Debug" option on ATE's Connection Properties...Printer...General Options menu. If you are using A-Shell rather than ATE, get to the prompt and enter SET DEBUG.
