Add 2 extra columns to an excel file

Question

LS,

Since the Microsoft ODBC Excel Driver doesn't support ALTER TABLE/DELETE FROM(/UPDATE?) statements, I'm using alternative ways of getting the right data in the right place.

I still have one problem with getting 2 columns added to an excel sheet.

Someone told me to use:

SELECT *, newcol1, newcol1 INTO newExternalSheet FROM thisSheet;

This doesn't work, since the driver complains about non-existant columns. Well, it doesn't exactly tell me that, but it gives some vague error message about parameters missing.

Believe me, there are no parameters missing, it also gives that error message for this kind of situations.

SQL error: [Microsoft][ODBC Excel Driver] Too few parameters. Expected 2.

I hope you can help me out with this.

Kind regards,

Matthias Vance

Answer 1

It looks like when you pass newcol1 to your database, it think you are specifying either a paramater or a column name. Also, Excel sometimes gets confused, so it helps to wrap your entire query in a Select * From (...) X statement. Why not use:

Select * From (SELECT *, '' As `newcol1`, '' AS `newcol2` FROM thisSheet) X;