Writing to a .xls file using UTL_FILE package

Hi,
Can anyone help me out on writing a .xls file using the UTL_FILE package? I am able to write a .txt and .csv file. But .xls file I am not able to do .. the fields are not coming properly if I use a comma separated approach- all the data are coming in the first column itself.
I was trying the following..

v_buffer := '"'||rec.dept||'","'||rec.students||'"';
UTL_FILE.PUT_LINE(v_fh, v_buffer);

Any help in this regard will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Regds,
Abhi

You separate with comma when creating csv files, when creating xls files you want to separate with chr(9) like: rec.dept||chr(9)||rec.students

Quote:

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Originally Posted by abhi_oracle

Hi,
Can anyone help me out on writing a .xls file using the UTL_FILE package? I am able to write a .txt and .csv file. But .xls file I am not able to do .. the fields are not coming properly if I use a comma separated approach- all the data are coming in the first column itself.
I was trying the following..

v_buffer := '"'||rec.dept||'","'||rec.students||'"';
UTL_FILE.PUT_LINE(v_fh, v_buffer);

Any help in this regard will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Regds,
Abhi

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when you open in excel you need to specify that it is comma delimited

Thanks a lot guys... I tried with chr(9) and it worked ..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by abhi_oracle

I tried with chr(9) and it worked ..

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There is a reason for that, in Excel you hit TAB to move to the next cell... chr(9) = TAB