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SQL Server Exporting a VIEW to Excel hangs

When I try to export a TABLE to Excel, it works just fine.

But when I try to export a VIEW, I get some warning messages beforehand (see attached file), then it hangs, and creates a HUGE tempdb file that would keep growing if I didn't stop the SQL service. Am I missing something about exporting a view? It's a very simple view, and works just fine when I query it. I wouldn't worry if the process was SLOW, but to be creating a seemingly infinite tempdb file (10GB+) seems to be a problem.
SQL-Print-Screen.JPG

K A

ASKER

I should add that when I tried to export to a CSV file, the exact same thing happens... so it doesn't appear to be part of Excel.

Lowfatspread

can you show us the ddl for the view ....?

what is it a join between several tables?
do they all come from the same database?

are you trying to export all rows , or are you using some selection criteria?

any order by requirements?

K A

ASKER

(all from the same database)

Here's the VIEW:

SELECT coid, coname, locid, locdesc, mainlocn, mainship, mainpoto, iscustco, issuplco, ismyco, isshipto, isbill, ispoto, isremit, street1, street2, city, state, country, zip,
contact, title, phone, extens, fax, email, website, remarkid, recvlocn, recvvia, recvfob, buyer, shipfrom, shipvia, shipfob, taxdist, salesman, glsalegr, billid, billloc,
remitid, remitloc, userid, timestmp, delmark, contact1, contact2, contact3, contact4, contact5, rptname, costatus, phone2, agentid, agentloc, siccode, active, loctype,
cotype
FROM dbo.coaddr2
WHERE (coid IN
(SELECT billto
FROM dbo.slheader2))

Here's coaddr2:

      [coid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [coname] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [locid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [locdesc] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [mainlocn] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [mainship] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [mainpoto] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [iscustco] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [issuplco] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [ismyco] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [isshipto] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [isbill] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [ispoto] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [isremit] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [street1] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [street2] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [city] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [state] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [country] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [zip] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [contact] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [title] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [phone] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [extens] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [fax] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [email] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [website] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [remarkid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [recvlocn] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [recvvia] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [recvfob] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [buyer] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shipfrom] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shipvia] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shipfob] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [taxdist] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [salesman] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [glsalegr] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [billid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [billloc] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [remitid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [remitloc] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [userid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [timestmp] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [delmark] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [contact1] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [contact2] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [contact3] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [contact4] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [contact5] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [rptname] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [costatus] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [phone2] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [agentid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [agentloc] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [siccode] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [active] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [loctype] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [cotype] [varchar](50) NULL

Here slheader2:

      [apprcode] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [apprdate] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [docid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [doctype] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [ordrstat] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [billto] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [billlocn] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shipto] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shiplocn] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [coname] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [street1] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [street2] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [city] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [state] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [zip] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [country] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [created] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [ordrdate] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [donedate] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [expires] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [printed] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [arstat] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shipstat] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shipvia] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [fob] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [terms] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [duedate] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [applied] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [discused] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [taxamt] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [totalamt] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [origin] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [originid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [custpono] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [salesman] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shipfrom] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [taxexmt] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [autodone] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [shipstax] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [taxdist] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [glsaleid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [rlsgroup] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [ordrdisc] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [linertrn] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [idlotsn] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [userid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [timestmp] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [delmark] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [commpaid] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [cmpddate] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [commstat] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [refto] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [reflocn] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [lockstat] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [rev] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [revdate] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [currency] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [exchange] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [gstexmt] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [gstamt] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [gstrate] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [acptdate] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [hasvoids] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [sendmail] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [misc01] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [misc02] [varchar](50) NULL,
      [misc03] [varchar](50) NULL

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Lowfatspread

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K A

ASKER

Thanks for your help so far...

Regarding why all the columns are varchar and nullable - only because that's just the default way the data came in when it was imported from Excel. No indexes are defined.

There are approximately 8400 rows in coaddr2 and approximately 28000 rows in slheader2. I'm exepecting about 5600 rows to be output.

One thing confuses me - (since working with this for many, many hours since I origianally posted the question) I AM getting about 93 rows to export to Excel... so I'm considering that I've got a bad row in the data somewhere... BUT - the first 93 rows are based on the order of the data in the "IN" clause (slheader2), not the "source" table of coaddr2. That's making it harder to diagnose where that bad data might be.

I've had trouble with ORDER BY clauses in creating and using views. How can I specify the CREATE VIEW to use an ORDER BY a column in the coaddr2 table (i.e. coid)?

K A

ASKER

Thanks... using EXISTS seems to have straightened it all out.

Lowfatspread

putting an order by clause in a view has no effect (unless the order by clause is in an OVER function) ....

your data is probably bad , that the real danger of working with user spreadsheets as a data input source...

are you sure that the spreadsheet data doesn't contain tabs, or other non space whitespace characters...?

try doing
select billto,billtolength,count(*)
from (
select '(' + billto +')' as billto, Datalength(billto) as Billtolength
from slheader2
) as X
group by billto
order by 1

and

select coid,coidlength,count(*)
from (
select '(' + coid +')' as coid, Datalength(coid) as coidlength
FROM dbo.coaddr2
) as X
group by coid
order by 1

and see what data you've got.

in general creating an index on slheader2 for the billto column should help
e.g.
create index dbo.slheader2_Billto as (billto asc)