I have a spreadsheet which was provided by a 3rd party to allow import into their financials sql server database - unfortunately editing the spreadsheet would break our support contract. It has a few columns which have "current" and "revised" headings, which by default have a formula in the "revised" column which simply sets it equal to the "current" column. It was intended at design time that humans type over the "revised" cells with real numbers, save the sheet and it gets uploaded to the database. This works fine.

However, it has suddenly become desirable to update these cells via a program which is exporting from a project management database via a Java API/ODBC! No problem if the "revised" cells have already been overwritten with numbers by humans, but if they still contain the original formula, odbc resolutely says "field not updatable".

Does anyone have any possible hints before my brain implodes - or am I wasting my time?

Thanks for any comments

ade