How to resolve the "We found a problem with some content in Excel" error message when exporting Pivot Table data to an Excel document?

Introduction

When exporting pivot table data to an Excel file, you may sometimes encounter the following error message when opening the file: “We found a problem with some content in Excel”. This error message typically appears when formatted values are replaced with different content. For example, in this scenario, our pivot table has value cells with an “Infinity” value, which is not recognized as a valid number in the Excel document, leading to this error message. This article provides a solution to prevent this error message by customizing the data during the export process, specifically targeting cells containing “Infinity” and ensuring they are formatted in a manner that Excel can comprehend.

Manipulating “Infinity” values to prevent this error message

To avoid this error message, you need to use the excelQueryCellInfo event in your code. This event is triggered before each cell is exported to an Excel file and allows you to customize the cell information during the export process.

Here is a code example that demonstrates how you can implement the excelQueryCellInfo event to replace “Infinity” values during the export process:

[index.js]

import { PivotViewComponent} from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-pivotview';

let gridSettings = {
    excelQueryCellInfo: function(args) {
    // Check if the cell value is "Infinity" and replace it appropriately
    if(args.value === Infinity) {
        // Unset the number format if the value is Infinity
        args.style.numberFormat = undefined;
        // Replace the actual value (Infinity) with the string 'Infinity'
        args.value = 'Infinity';
    }
}

 <PivotViewComponent gridSettings={gridSettings}>
 </PivotViewComponent> 

Implementation Guide

1. First, we defined the excelQueryCellInfo event within the gridSettings.
2. Subsequently, within this event, we checked if the cell value was equal to ‘Infinity’ by using the args.value property.
3. If the condition was met, we removed any number formatting that might have been associated with the cell by setting args.style.numberFormat to undefined.
4. Afterwards, we replaced the cell value with a string representation, such as “Infinity”. By doing this, the problematic numerical value was converted into a text string that Excel could process without causing errors.

The following GIF images illustrate the difference before and after implementing the above solution:

Before implementing the solution,

After implementing the solution,

For a practical demonstration, refer to the sample of stackblitz.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed learning how to resolve the “We found a problem with some content in Excel” error message when exporting Pivot Table data to an Excel document.

You can refer to our React Pivot Table feature tour page to learn about its other groundbreaking feature representations and documentation, and how to quickly get started for configuration specifications. You can also explore our React Pivot Table example to understand how to create and manipulate data.

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