IBM Support

Unable to Export output tables to Excel 2007 and higher (*.xlsx)

Troubleshooting


Problem

I am using IBM SPSS Statistics 19 or 20 release and attempting to export a Statistics output table. I have Microsoft Excel 2007 or 2010 installed on my computer. Microsoft Excel 2007 and higher does not have a column limitation of 255 column. My table has more than 255 columns. When I use the 'Excel (*.xls)' export option, I receive the message 'No more than 255 columns can be exported to Excel' and the export fails. What can I do?

Resolving The Problem

The Statistics 'Export' option for releases 19 and 20 uses the Excel 2003 program specification which include limiting the number of columns in a spreadsheet to 255.

For IBM SPSS Statistics 21 release the enhancement request has been included to allow the Statistics 'Export' option to use program specifications for Excel 2007 (where the number of columns allowed in a spreadsheet exceed 255).
In Statistics 21 you have the option to export output tables as

Excel 2007 and higher (*.xlsx) and as


Excel 2007 and higher Macro enabled (*.xlsm)


For releases 19 and 20 a possible work around this problem is using the 'HTML (*.htm)' export option. Microsoft Excel 2003 and 2007 natively read this file format and it does not possess the limitations of the 'Excel (*.xls)' export specifications.

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Historical Number

85078

Document Information

Modified date:
16 April 2020

UID

swg21484124

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