Limit on export size when using SaveAs in Powerbuilder?

Question

Given the issue with then Microsoft Excel XLS format, i.e. "Excel 97-2003 compatible", can't handle more than 65,536 rows. XLSX can, but is not a standard powerbuilder output format.

So, if you're trying to save more than 65k rows from a datawindow, you should save it to something like .CSV

However, is there a limit as to how much data the SaveAs function can handle, assuming it is using CSV, thus bypassing the XLS limit?

I've read that PB has issues trying to import more than 100k rows from file [source], but is there a hard limit before you need to start thinking about breaking up export files into manageable pieces?

Also, is there any documentation that explains this, giving a limit as to how much can be exported to CSV, and an example of file breaking?

Answer 1

I don't think there is a practical limit to SaveAs() with csv! other than filesystem limits on file sizes.

If you do find a limit, you could write your own unlimited SaveAs function, as described in this old article:

http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=42079

Answer 2

From Excel's own Help File, that popped up when I tried to save 102,000 rows to a CSV file and then open in Excel:

This message can appear if:

You are trying to open a file that contains more than 65,536 rows or 256 columns. To fix this problem, open the source file in a text editor such as Microsoft Word. Save the source file as several smaller files that conform to this row and column limit, and then open the smaller files in Excel. If the source data cannot be opened in a text editor, try importing the data into Microsoft Access, and then exporting subsets of the data from Access to Excel.

You are trying to paste tab-delimited data into an area that is too small. To fix this problem, select an area in the worksheet large enough to accommodate every delimited item.

Notes

You can not configure Excel to exceed the limit of 65,536 rows and 256 columns.

By default, Excel places three worksheets in a workbook file. Each worksheet can contain 65,536 rows and 256 columns of data, and workbooks can contain more than three worksheets if your computer has enough memory to support the additional data.

Answer 3

ImportFile Size Limit If your application uses the ImportFile method to import very large text files into a DataWindow or DataStore, ImportFile returns the error code -15.

PowerBuilder versions 10.0 and later are Unicode enabled. Earlier ANSI versions of PowerBuilder were able to import larger text files.

Note: The release bulletins for earlier versions listed the size limit for large files as approximately 839,000 lines. However, the size limit depends on the number of columns in the files, as well as the number of lines.