Cognos 11 Repeater & Export to Excel Data

Question

I am using cognos 11.1.3 and I am using a repeater within a list. The "repeated" column is using a master-detail relationship. However, I could export the report to Excel with the repeater created. Unfortunately, the repeater will be disappeared when export to "Excel Data". It is a repeater and NOT repeater table (expected 1 very long text column).

Please suggest whether the master-detail relationship is not possible for "Excel Data".

Answer 1

Quick answer, no

Detailed Answer From IBM Documentation:

Excel 2007 Data provides data for use in Microsoft Excel version 2007. These reports only contain minimal formatting. Default data formatting is applied to the data based on data type and assumes that each column has a single data type.

The output is similar to other Excel formats, with the following exceptions:

The generated output includes only the first list query in the report.

If a report contains multiple queries and the first query is a multi-dimensional query for a crosstab or for a chart, an error message is displayed when the report runs.

Nested frames and master-detail links are not supported.

Cells in the Microsoft Excel file have a default width and height. You must adjust the column width and height if the data is larger than the default size.

Style specifications are not rendered, including color, background color, and fonts. Borders are not rendered.

User-specified data formatting in the report specification are not applied, including exception highlighting and color rules for negative numbers.

Here is a link explaining in more detail

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/11.0.0?topic=results-view-output-in-microsoft-excel-format

Answer 2

As per the answer below supported by documentation, Excel Data is the second rawest export type next to CSV. Try exporting to Excel (Not Excel Data).

Answer 3

I find that running a report to the "Excel Data" or "CSV" output types is not the same as running it to "Excel".

Excel output will include what is on the report pages, including a good approximation of the formatting features, with a tab created for each page. If there are too many rows on a page, an additional tabs are created as needed. The default maximum page length for output to Excel is 65000 rows, but it can be changed.

Excel Data and CSV can produce odd results. In my experience, these output formats return the first query from the first page of the report. For example, if you have a list on the page, but you also are running a small query to produce page header information, you'll get only the output of the query that produces the header info. Plus, it's the query output, not the report output. So if my header shows city and state, but the query also includes country, the output spreadsheet will include city, state, and country -- so, not what's on the page.

So, in your case, you won't get the results of the query that feeds the repeater.

Excel Data and CSV produce results that confuse users. In my opinion, it should not be used. Craft your report to produce exactly the output you need. If that's a simple list like you would use in Excel to feed some other process (so... a Cognos Analytics report as an ETL tool?), your page should contain no header or footer information and only a simple list that looks like what you want.