Banner Data Export (Extract)

Overview

You can export data from a Banner page to a spreadsheet. You can export detail data from the current section with data from the key block. Once the Banner data is in a spreadsheet, you can easily graph and report the data.

Availability of the Export Feature

The export feature is available on most Banner pages. You can tell that the extract feature is enabled on a specific page if the following option is enabled in the Tools pull-down menu:

  • Export

Data Security

Because of the potential to have protected data in these export files, data which is saved must be adequately protected from outside access. We recommend that you password protect all data files saved to a portable device (laptop, flash drive, PDA, etc) and that you use the workstation locking feature or screen saver password on all of your computers with this data.

Exporting Data

When you export data from Banner, it creates a file in a comma separated value format (extension of .csv) which can easily be viewed in a spreadsheet.

  1. Access the Banner page.
  2. If applicable, display the desired records on the page.
  3. Select the following option from the Tools pull-down menu in the upper right corner of the page:
    • Export (will export key data and data in the current section)
  4. When the export is complete, a dialog box identifies the name of the Excel file and asks you if you want to open, save, or cancel.
  5. You may open or save the document.

Notes:

  1. On a macintosh, when the file is extracted, it may display quotes and commas. If this happens, save the file with a .csv extension and then open an Excel session and open the file using Excel.
  2. Microsoft Excel and Quattro Pro will truncate leading zeros of numbers in fields that are alphanumeric. If there is data that you do not want to be truncated, you will need to go through a few extra steps to import the file (see instructions below).

Troubleshooting:

  • Edge

    When using Banner with Edge, if you have problems using the data export feature, check to see if there is a notification on the Edge web page. If there is a message that Edge prevented this site from opening a pop-up window, click options and select allow pop-ups from banweb.sou.edu.

  • Firefox

    When using Banner with Firefox, if you have problems using the data export feature, check to see if there is a notification on the Firefox web page. If there is a message that Firefox prevented this site from opening a pop-up window, click options and select allow pop-ups from banweb.sou.edu.

  • Chrome

    When using Banner with Chrome, if you have problems using the data export feature, look for a message that a pop-up window has been blocked. If that is the case you will need to change your setting to allow pop-ups from Banner.

    Chrome downloads the file instead of showing you a message asking if you want to open or save. Downloads in Chrome show at the bottom of a page. You will see the file name (<Banner page name>.csv). If you click on the arrow next to it you can open the file or go to the folder where it has been downloaded. If you look at your downloads folder you should see export you have done (unless you have pop-ups being blocked).

Manually Importing Data in MS Excel

If you wish to change the data format of specific columns before opening it in Excel, you need to manually import a data file:

  1. Go to MS Excel.
  2. On the Data menu at the top of the window, point to Get External Data, and then click Import Text File.
  3. In the Files of type box, select the "All Files *.*" option.
  4. In the Look in list, locate and double-click on the extract file that you want.
  5. The Text Import Wizard window will come up and prompt you for how the file is formatted. In the Step 1 of 3 window, select "Delimited" for the Original Data Type and click the Next button.
  6. In the Step 2 of 3 window, select "Comma" for the Delimiters and click the Next button.
  7. The Step 3 of 3 window will pop up with the extract file separated into columns. Here's where you can specify the data format for each column. The default format for all columns is General. For alphanumeric fields that with numbers, the Text format works the best. For date fields, the Date or General formats work fine. Select the column that you want to change the format and click on the appropriate format option in the Column data format section.
  8. Repeat step 7 for all the columns that you want to change the default formatting. When you are done formatting the columns, click on the Finish button.
  9. An Import Data window will pop up. Select the "New worksheet" option for the question 'Where do you want to put the data?' and click the OK button. Now the spreadsheet is ready to work with.