LabVIEW : How to export a 1D array faster to a .xlsx file

[rpbrn]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently using LabVIEW (2020 SP1) to automate testing of electronic boards and laser diodes. At the end of each test bench, a large amount of data needs to be exported into a .xlsx file.

To do this, I load an Excel template, fill it in with the new data, and then save a copy locally.

The issue I'm facing is that the export process is very slow, it takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.

I can't share the full code here, but I can show the key parts.

Here’s how I create the .xlsx file:

And here's how I export most of the data :

This process is repeated multiple times throughout the export.

From what I can tell, the bottleneck seems to be this part:

As the 1D array that I'm trying to export contains around 300 values. 

Has anyone encountered a similar issue or found a way to speed up Excel export in LabVIEW?

Any suggestions or best practices would be greatly appreciated!

Kind regards,

Raphaël

[zou · Accepted solution]

Instead of writing individual cell to the Excel template, try build a 2-D array in LabVIEW, write everything to the template in one call.

[rpbrn]

Hello George,

I thought about doing so. But I only have 1 column of useful data.

Is it possible to create a 2D array with a "void" column ?

Raphaël

[zou]

If I remember correctly, write to a column need a 2-D array.  Use the Build Array function to convert a 1-D array to 2-D.

[rpbrn]

I wasn’t able to convert my 1D array into a 2D array, but I managed to merge my 1D array with an existing 2D array and export the resulting 3D array all at once.

The export process is indeed much faster.

Raphaël

[GerdW · Accepted solution]

Hi Raphael,

---

@rpbrn wrote:

I wasn’t able to convert my 1D array into a 2D array, but I managed to merge my 1D array with an existing 2D array and export the resulting 3D array all at once.

---

Whatever you did you did it wrong!

There is no "merge array" function: what exactly did you try to implement?

---

@zou wrote:

Use the Build Array function to convert a 1-D array to 2-D.

---

It should be as easy as this:

[rpbrn]

Hello GerdW,

You're right, it turns out I didn't fully understand how the "build array" function works with 1D arrays!

Here's what I did : 

Perhaps "merge" wasn't the right word ? If so, sorry, english isn't my first language.

What I meant was that I used the "build array" function to combine three 1D arrays into one.

Kind regards,

Raphaël

[GerdW]

Hi Raphael,

---

@rpbrn wrote:

Perhaps "merge" wasn't the right word ? If so, sorry, english isn't my first language.

What I meant was that I used the "build array" function to combine three 1D arrays into one.

---

Which LabVIEW language version do you use? There context help shows the English name of each function!

Building 3 1D arrays results in a 2D array: the context help shows also the datatype of each wire the mouse pointer hovers over!

Like this:

[rpbrn]

Oh you're right, the context help window does show the english name of the function. 

Thanks again for the explanations GerdW !

Kind regards,

Raphaël