Re: [PATCH] Return the correct column names in SQLTables

On 09/23/2014 03:46 AM, David Hedberg wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 11:46 AM, Heikki Linnakangas
> <hlinnakangas(at)vmware(dot)com> wrote:
>> On 08/09/2014 07:29 PM, David Hedberg wrote:
>>>
>>> This patch was needed to be able to
>>> list the tables when trying to import data in Excel 2010/PowerPivot.
>>
>>
>> Hmm. According to the ODBC documentation on SQLTables:
>>
>> "The following columns have been renamed for ODBC 3.x. The column name
>> changes do not affect backward compatibility because applications bind by
>> column number."
>>
>> So, arguably this is a bug in Excel/PowerPivot, if it's binding by column
>> name rather than number. But it doesn't really matter, we should fix the
>> column names anyway.
>
> To the extent the problem falls on the driver side, what do you think
> about the proposed patch? Feel free to amend it or throw it away if
> you have a better fix.
>
>>> A somewhat unrelated question:
>>> There is one more "fix" needed to get the import of data in PowerPivot
>>> working properly, and that is because PowerPivot insists on creating
>>> the query with mssql-style quotes. (select [schema].[table].* instead
>>> of select "schema"."table".* ..).
>>
>>
>> Ugh. How does that work with any other ODBC driver than MS SQL Server?
>>
>
> I don't really use these products usually so I can't really comment,
> but as far as I could tell there was no attempt made to get the
> correct quoting style from the driver. I guess I will keep my ugly
> hack for this to myself though unless asked otherwise. :-)

This seems to be generic problem with PowerPivot and non-MS data
sources. Some searching found a possible solution, use the Power Query
add in:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39379

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/introduction-to-microsoft-power-query-for-excel-HA104003940.aspx

>
>> - Heikki
>>
>
> / David
>
>

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com