Who is this article for?

  Users exporting data.

When exporting a view, Ideagen Audit & Risk uses the view name as the Excel worksheet name. Excel enforces strict naming rules for worksheets, but the application does not validate view names against these rules. If a view name contains restricted characters or reserved words, the export will fail. The workaround is to ensure view names comply with Excel’s worksheet naming restrictions.

Issue

When you export a view, the export process generates an Excel file and uses the view name as the name of the worksheet within that file. Excel imposes restrictions on worksheet names, but Ideagen Audit & Risk does not enforce these restrictions when naming views. As a result, if a view name violates any of Excel’s rules, the export will fail at the point of worksheet creation.

Excel worksheet names must not:

• Contain any of the following characters: / \ ? * : [ ]
• Begin or end with an apostrophe ( ’ )
• Be named History — this is a reserved word used internally by Excel

Because the application does not prevent you from using these characteristics in a view name, any export attempt using a non-compliant name will fail.

Workaround

To prevent export failures, ensure that all view names comply with Excel’s worksheet naming rules before exporting. Specifically:

• Do not include any of these characters in the view name: / \ ? * : [ ]
• Do not begin or end the view name with an apostrophe ( ’ )
• Do not name the view History (this name is reserved by Excel)
• Keep the view name to 31 characters or fewer to avoid truncation

If you have an existing view with a non-compliant name, rename it before attempting to export.

Additional Behaviour: 31-Character Limit

If a view name exceeds 31 characters, the export process will automatically truncate it to 31 characters. This is a silent operation and does not cause the export to fail, but it will result in a worksheet name that differs from the original view name.