Writing Data to Excel File without Report Generation Toolkit

[jlaijames]

I am creating a test program in Labview to test a large number of boards. I would like to be able to create an excel file report for each board and a separate excel sheet for each test that I run on that board which will include the measured data from each test and a pass/fail status. Is something like this possible if I do not have the Report Generation Toolkit. Any suggestions on how I may implement something like this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Gribo]

You can use the Excel ActiveX or .NET libraries to do that. 

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Excel-add-sheets-to-a-Workbook-using-net/td-p/3293256

[JensG69]

Have a look at XLR8

Regards, Jens

[Bob_Schor]

Do you really need to write an Excel (.xlsx) file?  Would a SpreadSheet file (a Comma-separate-value, or .csv) file that Excel can open and treat as a SpreadSheet, work for you?  If so, use Write Delimited Spreadsheet.

Bob Schor

[jlaijames]

The plan was to write to excel so everything is a little neater because there will be a lot of tests and data being written to the file. I wanted to have separate excel sheets for each test so that if I were to rerun a specific test, I could just add the new data into the next row. But I guess if there is no way to use excel without activex or the Report Generation Toolkit, then I have to just add everything into a CSV file and have the data for each test written into a new row rather than a new sheet and overwrite the old data when I do a rerun.

[JensG69]

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@jlaijames wrote:

But I guess if there is no way to use excel without activex or the Report Generation Toolkit,

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There is - read my previous post and follow the link.

Regards, Jens

[jlaijames]

Sorry, I meant that there doesn't seem to be a way to work with excel without having to buy extra tools.

[Bob_Schor]

Well, what you are describing is "How to save data from separate tests and maintain some sort of organization".  Excel, with each Test being a WorkSheet, and multiple repetitions being an added Row, is certainly one way to do this.  Another way would be to use a DataBase (but this might be OverKill).  Another way to structure this is to have a File for each Test ("Test 1 Results.txt"), open the File for the respective Test, and write the Test Results at the end of the File (it's pretty simple to append text to a text file).  You can even do this with a .csv file, if you choose.

Having said all that, depending on what you want to do with all these data may make a convincing argument for Excel, where all the data from all the tests are in a single file, and a non-LabVIEW user who knows Excel can "play" with the data, make graphs, do statistics, etc.  Depending on how much data, how many Tests/Sheets/Files you have, how often you add to the data, you may decide it is cost-effective to purchase a Solution (like the RGT, or one of the other Excel-compatible methods), or else (if you only need to do this once), you could open the 5 (I'm assuming) .csv files in Excel, then copy them (in Excel) to the Excel WorkBook that has one WorkSheet per Test.  A little manual labor, but if you don't do this often, pretty cost-effective.

Bob Schor

[JensG69]

Again wrong. Start VI Package Manager and search for xlsx...

Regards, Jens

[jlaijames]

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@JensG69 wrote:
Again wrong. Start VI Package Manager and search for xlsx...

Regards, Jens

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I see XLR8 in the VI Package Manager but it says I can install for a 30 day evaluation period and then the developer license needs to be purchased. I was looking for more of a permanent workaround.