TMSFlexcell CSV Export empty columns not exported

[Martijn_Toussaint]

Hi, we have been using Flexcell to export data to CSV format.
However we are now experiencing a problem in which columns on the end of the dataset are not exported when they are completely empty.

Our export uses:

              Writer := TStreamWriter.Create(MSRapportBijlage, TEncoding.UTF8);  
              Writer.BaseStream.Size := 0; // not UTF-8 BOM
              Try
                XLSX.Export(Writer, TXlsCellRange.Null, ';', true, #13#10);
              Finally
                Writer.Free;
              End;

The XLSX is being populated using SetCellValue

XLSX.SetCellValue( irow, icol + 1, Dataset.Fields[icol].AsString );

When including the fieldnames (headers on first row) everything works fine (XLSX.SetCellValue(1, icol + 1, DataSet.Fields[icol].DisplayName ), but when we skip the first line/headers, columns on the end are not exported.

[adrian]

Hi,
I am not sure I fully understand the issue, but if the cells are empty, I think it makes sense that we don't export them.
When you pass TXlsCellRange.Null to the Export (as you are doing here), FlexCel calculates the maximum non-empty cell and exports that range. If it didn't and it exported the empry cells, it would have to export the full 16k columns.

If you want to export say 40 columns, even if the columns say from 35 to 40 are empty, you can pass a range here instead of null. For example:

XLSX.Export(Writer, TXlsCellRange.Create(1, 1, xls.RowCount, 40), ';', true, #13#10);

Is that what you are looking for? Or did I misunderstand the issue?

[Martijn_Toussaint]

Hi @adrian, the cells in the last few columns are filled with empty strings e.g

XLSX.SetCellValue( irow, icol + 1, '' );

We will try to experiment with and actual range in stead of TXlsCellRange.Null

[adrian]

Empty strings are not different from empty, there is not that distinction in Excel. Those cells are still empty.

I believe the simplest here is just to pass the range you want to export (which you should have from the dataset), but for a different case, if you want to have a "empty cell that is not empty" the way to do that would be to have an empty cell with some formatting. If the cell has formatting, it will not count as empty, even if it has no data.