Q1. ERROR message: “Please select an empty cell inside the data range of the column that you are trying to fill.”

This warning message is triggered in two cases:

No valid data region was detected for transformations to be performed. There are two ways to select data region in Transform Data by Example: (1) The user can select any empty cell in the column for which output needs to be produced, in such a case a contiguous non-empty region to the left is automatically inferred as the data region (see the first figure below), or (2) The user explicitly selects a region where the last column is used as the output column, in which values are only partially filled (see the second figure below). No valid data region can be detected if neither condition above is met. Please explicitly select a data region and click “Get Transformations” again.

All cells in the output column are already filled in. If there are no empty cells to populate in the output column (see example in the figure below) this warning message is raised. Please review the data region shown in a shaded area on your spreadsheet, and adjust as necessary.

Q2. No result is returned after clicking “Get Transformations”.

First, please verify that a valid data region is selected. If you see warning messages displayed at the top of the result pane, please refer to Q1 above to ensure that a valid data region is selected.

If the data region selected is valid, please check that example values provided in the output column are correct. Currently, the programs we generate are required to be consistent with all output examples provided by users. As such, a minor typo in the output column can prevent results from being produced. In some cases, you may consider removing examples that may be too restrictive.

Lastly, it is possible that the crawler has not seen the libraries that can be useful for your transformation task. However, if you have the code/library/web-service for the required transformation, you can use the extensibility feature of Transform Data by Example to make additional transformation functionalities available to you. Note that all extensions you make to the service are visible only to you and not other users.

Q3. Too many results are returned, none of which look relevant.

This typically happens when the transformation task is under-specified, because not enough examples are provided. Please consider providing more (ideally different) output examples, and please refer to Q5 of FAQ above for more information.

Q4. I clicked on “Apply/Unapply” by mistake and now all empty cells in the output column are filled with values. How do I undo this action?

To undo this action, simply click on the same “Apply/Unapply” button again. This button works in toggle mode. Note that the Excel built-in “undo” functionality does not work for data populated by the Add-in.

Q5. ERROR message “Sorry, we had to restart because this add-in wasn’t responding.”

This happens when the connection to the backend service is lost or unstable. Please right-click any white open area in the Add-in, then click “reload” and try again.

Q6. My output data are formatted into strange numbers that I don’t recognize.

Occasionally, numbers are recognized as dates and other built-in data types, and will be automatically formatted by Excel. Please select the data region in question, right-click your mouse, click “format text” in the menu, then click “Text” from the list of options, and finally click “OK”. This will disable auto-formatting in the data region. Please refer to this article for more information.

Q7. When I scroll on the Add-In, Excel appears to freeze and become unresponsive.

There is a known issue where Excel the presence of an Add-In causes Excel to freeze. As a workaround, if you change focus to any other application on your machine, and then change focus back to Excel, it will become responsive again.