XL97: Web Query File Is Case Sensitive (162025)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

This article was previously published under Q162025

SYMPTOMS

When you run a Web query in Microsoft Excel 97, you may receive the following error message:

An unexpected error has occurred

Your only option is to click OK. After you click OK, the Web query stops, and no data is returned to the worksheet.

CAUSE

This error message occurs when the first line of text in the Web query (.iqy) file is not uppercase letters.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this behavior, change the first line of text in the query file to uppercase letters. For example, if the contents of the Web query file is the following:

Web
1
http://webservices.pcquote.com/cgi-bin/exceldow.exe?

change the text to:

WEB
1
http://webservices.pcquote.com/cgi-bin/exceldow.exe?

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Excel 97. This problem no longer occurs in Microsoft Excel 2000.

MORE INFORMATION

In Microsoft Excel 97, Web queries allow you to query data from a specific World Wide Web site, Internet, or intranet site, and return the information directly into a Microsoft Excel worksheet. Microsoft Excel 97 includes some sample Web queries, which are located in the Program Files\Microsoft Office\Queries folder.

To run a Web query, point to Get External Data on the Data menu, and then click Run Web Query. Then, locate and select the .iqy file that contains the query and click Get Data in the Run Query dialog box.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

157482 XL97: How to Create Web Query (.iqy) Files

REFERENCES

For more information about Web queries, click Contents And Index on the Help menu, click the Index tab in Excel Help, type the following text web, queries and then double-click the selected text to go to the "Create a Web query" topic.

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	4/21/2001
Keywords:	kberrmsg kbualink97 kbweb KB162025