Question

"division by zero" error when exporting report to MS-Excel

Asked by: abrusko

We get a "division by zero" error when exporting a report to MS-Excel.
But we do NOT get an error when exporting the same report to PDF format.
Are there know bugs with getting this to work for MS-Excel?

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Asked On
2008-09-02 at 12:29:41ID23697125
Tags

Crystal Reports 10

,

CR Professional, Full

,

10.0.0.533

,

export report to MS-Excel

Topics

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Software

,

Crystal Reports Software

,

Business Objects

Participating Experts
1
Points
250
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2008-09-02 at 12:53:16ID: 22370946

Not that I am aware of.  Is this a new report?

Had the export to Excel worked in the past?

mlmcc

 

by: abruskoPosted on 2008-09-03 at 06:47:56ID: 22377120

This is not a new report, and it has indeed always exported successfully in the past. We know what formula is causing the "division by zero" error when exporting to Excel, and we see no 0's in the related data values (the closest thing we see is 0.01). Our wildest guess is that there is some floating point precision definition or setting that is too short or small somewhere that is related to Excel (it seems odd that we can export to PDF format successfully). I should mention that we are exporting to Excel 2003 (11.8220.8202) SP3. Any thoughts?

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2008-09-03 at 09:56:49ID: 22379230

Can you export any reports to that Excel?

Try building a simple report that just has a text field in it or uses a single text field from the database.

mlmcc

 

by: abruskoPosted on 2008-09-03 at 11:00:52ID: 22379914

Yes, we can export other reports to that Excel.

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2008-09-03 at 11:27:46ID: 22380282

The only thing I can think to try is

Make a copy of the report
Delete a field from the report and try the export
Delete fields until you find the one that is causing the problem

mlmcc

 

by: abruskoPosted on 2008-09-03 at 13:07:32ID: 22381395

The report developer tells me that she resolved our immediate concern (the"divide by zero" problem), and stated it was a unique condition with the data, although a valid condition, that was causing the problem. Essentially, the developer changed the formula where the "divide by zero" occurred. While this doesn't explain why the PDF export worked when the Excel export didn't, I'll just close this question unless someone cares to comment further. Thank you for your help!

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2008-09-03 at 13:50:06ID: 22381820

Just curious what the unique condition was.

mlmcc

 

by: abruskoPosted on 2008-09-04 at 10:26:22ID: 22390132

Without getting into too many details about the data (it's related to payroll and somewhat sensitive), someone was actually eligible for a bonus even though no hours were worked. Hence an unusual "divide by 0" scenario reared it's head. Having shared that, there are still 2 mysteries :

1) why didn't the error appear until the export took place... the report was already visible on the screen and the error ought to have appeared when the report was generated, not during the export, and

2) why didn't the error ever appear when the report was exported to PDF.

So, there still seems to be something lurking within Crystal Reports, perhaps as it's related to Excel. If our developer has time, she will try to learn more by playing with the old report. But, she may never get around to it (the report is several hundred pages long). But, she did read something about "IIF does not behave like the IF function in Excel": https://boc.sdn.sap.com/files/CC065.pdf

Thanks for your help!

 

by: abruskoPosted on 2008-09-04 at 10:30:46ID: 31492477

Thanks...your suggestions got us thinking in new directions that helped us finally reolve this...thanks again.

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2008-09-04 at 21:48:14ID: 22395375

I don't know.

There may be something with a particular formula and how it is evaluated during export.

mlmcc

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