# Python Dataset Error **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Created:** [July 19, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463 "2024-07-19T13:37:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rick\_Pietruszka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5a626/32.png) [@Rick\_Pietruszka](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Rick_Pietruszka)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/1 "2024-07-19T13:37:15Z")
Since I am not a career programmer, but a controls guy, I am using some code I found in the forums here to manipulate an excel spreadsheet using the apache poi. At this point of the code I am getting an error: # Create header row in the sheet ``` headerRow = sheet.createRow(0) for i, col in enumerate(pyDS.getColumnNames()): ``` pyDS is the python dataset. The error I am getting is: AttributeError: 'com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common.script.bui' object has no attribute 'getColumnName' Any help is appreciated. Thanks! RP ---
**Author:** ![drojas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/drojas/32/3403_2.png) [@drojas](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/drojas)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/2 "2024-07-19T14:05:52Z")
Are you sure pyDS is not None? ---
**Author:** ![pascal.fragnoud](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pascal.fragnoud/32/24728_2.png) [@pascal.fragnoud](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pascal.fragnoud)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/3 "2024-07-19T14:12:50Z")
The error you show doesn't match the code you posted. See how you're calling `getColumnNames`, but the error says `getColumnName` ? Is that a typo, or is there some other place you're trying to call `getColumnName`, which, in fact, doesn't exist ? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Pietruszka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5a626/32.png) [@Rick\_Pietruszka](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Rick_Pietruszka)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:22pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/4 "2024-07-19T14:22:53Z")
Oops, sorry about that. It is in fact getColumnNames. I had tried it without the s on the end as I had seen somewhere else that had a method like that. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Pietruszka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5a626/32.png) [@Rick\_Pietruszka](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Rick_Pietruszka)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/5 "2024-07-19T14:24:10Z")
I am sure. To test this all I am doing is making a simple dataset: headers = ["Letters", "Numbers"] data= data.append(['A',1]) data.append(['B',2]) data.append(['C',3]) dataOut = system.dataset.toDataSet(headers, data) pythonDataset = system.dataset.toPyDataSet(dataOut) EXCEL.WRITEXLSX.listToExcel(pythonDataset) ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/6 "2024-07-19T14:52:09Z")
How old is your Ignition version? In older Ignition, `.getColumnNames()` (aka `.columnNames`) is available only on proper `Dataset` instances, not on `PyDataset` instances. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Pietruszka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5a626/32.png) [@Rick\_Pietruszka](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Rick_Pietruszka)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/7 "2024-07-19T15:10:02Z")
Ignition Platform 8.1.36 (b2024010211) ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:16pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/8 "2024-07-19T15:16:33Z")
Okay, let's take a step back. Post: 1. Exactly the error message you are getting, with the **full** details/stacktrace attached. 2. Exactly the code you're running in the script console/on your button/whatever. 3. Exactly the code you've got in the project library, apparently under the `EXCEL` package. Post all of those here as [preformatted text](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/wiki-how-to-post-code-on-this-forum/77831), so that indentation information (_crucial_ to Python) is not lost. Until you do that, we're all just taking stabs in the dark trying to help you. ---
**Author:** ![drojas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/drojas/32/3403_2.png) [@drojas](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/drojas)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:27pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/9 "2024-07-19T15:27:04Z")
@Rick_Pietruszka , I just tried your script. Here is what happened: Calling .getColumnNames() within the enumerate() function returns either a 'com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common.script.bui' error if it is a PyDataSet or 'com.inductiveautomation.ignition.common.BasicDatas' error if it is a DataSet. However, simply saving the column names to another variable, then using that in your enumerate function works like a champ ```python columnNames = pyDS.getColumnNames() for i, col in enumerate(columnNames): ``` ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Pietruszka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5a626/32.png) [@Rick\_Pietruszka](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Rick_Pietruszka)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/10 "2024-07-19T15:44:13Z")
It sounded like a winning solution, but it gave the same error on the columnNames = pyDS.getColumnNames() ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Pietruszka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5a626/32.png) [@Rick\_Pietruszka](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Rick_Pietruszka)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/11 "2024-07-19T15:54:28Z")
I got the code to work by simply not converting the dataset to a python dataset earlier in the script. I commented out the code for system.dataset.toPyDataSet(dsIn) and it is working great now. So ignition is not liking the methods for handling python datasets. ---
**Author:** ![drojas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/drojas/32/3403_2.png) [@drojas](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/drojas)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:57pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/12 "2024-07-19T15:57:20Z")
@Rick_Pietruszka , using the simple dataset example, the .getColumNames() function works on both a dataset and pyDataset. If it isn't working for you, perhaps there is something wrong with the pyDataset itself ```python headers = ["Name","Value"] data = [] data.append(['A',1]) data.append(['B',2]) data.append(['C',3]) ds = system.dataset.toDataSet(headers, data) pyDS = system.dataset.toPyDataSet(ds) columnNames = ds.getColumnNames() pyColumnNames = pyDS.getColumnNames() print columnNames print pyColumnNames for i, col in enumerate(pyColumnNames): #works fine print col #for i, col in enumerate(ds.getColumnnames()): #gives error # print col #for i, col in enumerate(pyDS.getColumnnames()): #gives error # print col ``` ---
**Author:** ![JordanCClark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jordancclark/32/83362_2.png) [@JordanCClark](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JordanCClark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:59pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/13 "2024-07-19T15:59:04Z")
I generally cast it to a list to prevent other issues that can arise from using the object directly: ```python columnNames = list(pyDS.getColumnNames()) ``` ---
**Author:** ![pascal.fragnoud](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pascal.fragnoud/32/24728_2.png) [@pascal.fragnoud](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pascal.fragnoud)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/14 "2024-07-19T16:42:18Z")
It never made sense to me that you can't use the list of headers you just extracted from a dataset to create another dataset without casting it first... ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/15 "2024-07-19T16:59:25Z")
It's because Ignition's `toDataSet()` function is strictly checking for python's list, where it should be looking any duck-typed list-like object. Java's `java.util.List<>` interface is wrapped by jython in a list-like implementation. Arguably a poor API choice on IA's part, _ **many** _ years ago. ---
**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 5:05pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/python-dataset-error/93463/16 "2024-07-19T17:05:40Z")
Oh, I won't argue it, I'd say it's _unambiguously_ a poor choice. We're explicitly checking for `PySequence`, and have been since, as far as I can tell, we migrated VCS systems to Git in _2011_. Maybe I'll sneak in a fix for 8.3...