Question:
I’m trying to export a report to Excel with OLE automation. I’m using PB 5.0.2 and Excel 97. I’ve seen countless examples on how to do this (in fact, I tried yours too!), but I keep getting an error when I try to call an Excel method. For example:

…..previous code to create the ole object and resolve the ole sheet variable, fill the cells with appropriate data (which works fine!) and then….

lole_sheet.Range(“A1:M3”).Select

This produces an error saying “Error calling external object function Range at line…”I’m also calling the Columns( ) method later and I’m getting a similar runtime error. What am I doing wrong?

Answer:
The problem you have is the version of Powerbuilder you are using. PB5 did not have the best OLE Automation support, and a lot of commands do not work properly. With PB6, Sybase hired a guy who had a much better understanding of OLE, and he has fixed many of the problems. I’m afraid the answer is to upgrade to PB6.