Ask about data and pull it into Excel

DataMind Oda answers questions about your company's data through the Minds of your DataMind OS, and puts the data itself into your workbook. This page follows the journey from the question you type in the pane to the sheet the result lands in, and back again when the data changes. See Oda in Excel for the pane itself.

Ask a question about your data

1. Type your question in the message box, in plain language, for example Show this year's sales by region. The hint Ask about your data or this workbook… stays there until you type. Enter sends the message, or click Send; Shift+Enter starts a new line.
2. Oda asks the Mind whose name and description fit the question, or the Mind you set in the Mind chip; see Choosing the Mind. A step row names the work as it happens: Looking up your Minds, whose result says how many Minds your account can reach, then Asking the Mind, which shows a DataMind OS card with the Mind's name and your question.
3. The answer appears in the chat and names the queries the Mind ran. The step row reads Answered, with 2 queries to pull, or Answered when the Mind ran none, and its card adds the rows, columns and time of the result and the names of the queries, each with Show the SQL; see See the SQL behind an answer. Under the answer, Sources names the Mind.

Follow-up questions in the same chat continue the conversation with that Mind, also after you close and reopen the pane.

If the Mind needs more detail, the step row reads The Mind asked: and its question, and Oda asks you in the chat. Answer in your next message; Oda passes your answer back to the Mind, with a step named Answering the Mind, and shows the finished answer.

Asking Minds needs the Use DataMind Oda and Use Minds from DataMind Oda permissions. Without Use Minds from DataMind Oda, the pane hides the Mind chip and the Data Sources sheet setting, and works with the workbook only.

When the answer takes a while

A Mind can take several minutes to answer, and Oda waits up to 10 minutes for one answer by default. If the Mind is still working then, the step row reads Still working on the server, and Oda tells you so and finishes the rest of what you asked. The Mind keeps working on your DataMind server. Ask for the answer later, for example Is the Mind's answer ready?: Oda checks back with a step named Waiting for the Mind, without asking the question again.

Click Stop while Oda waits for a Mind, and the Mind's work on that question is cancelled too. A question that an earlier reply left running keeps going; to call it off, ask Oda to cancel it. The step row then reads Cancelling the Mind’s work.

Look at the data behind an answer

Oda can also look at a Mind's data directly, without asking the Mind:

• Listing the Mind’s tables, Reading a table’s columns and Reading the Mind’s tables and columns show which tables the Mind can query, their columns and types, and which columns form the primary key or can be empty.
• Searching the Mind’s knowledge finds the documents, definitions and instructions attached to the Mind, in every folder or in one. Listing the Mind’s knowledge shows the knowledge cards the Mind has; it also needs the View Training Cards permission.
• Previewing a query runs a read-only query on the Mind's data and brings back at most 50 rows, to check a figure or a filter. A preview never changes the workbook.

These steps only read, so they never wait for your approval. While the Mind chip names a Mind, they work on that Mind only. Each row ends with a short result, such as 14 tables, 12 columns, 50 rows previewed, 8 passages found or 20 knowledge cards. The page sizes behind them are the same as in Oda's other apps; see Company data tools.

See the SQL behind an answer

The DataMind OS card of a Mind's answer lists the queries the Mind ran, and each has Show the SQL:

1. Click Show the SQL beside a query's name. While the pane fetches it from your DataMind server, with your access, it reads Loading the SQL….
2. The SQL shows in full, with its keywords highlighted, and characters that would not show spelled out, such as <U+200B>. Hide the SQL folds it away again.
3. Click Copy SQL to copy it; the pane says SQL copied.

When your DataMind server no longer keeps the query, or your account may no longer read it, the card says The SQL is no longer available. When the pane cannot reach your DataMind server, for example while this computer is offline, it says You are offline; open it again once you are back online. When your DataMind server answers with another error, it says The SQL could not be loaded. Hide it, then show it again to retry.

For a query Oda wrote itself, such as in Previewing a query or Writing query results to the workbook, the step row shows the SQL Oda sent behind the same Show the SQL, without asking your server for it. Each such query keeps a row of its own, so the SQL of every one can be opened.

Pull a Mind's result into a new sheet

When you want the rows themselves in the workbook, ask for the full result in a sheet, for example Pull those numbers into a sheet. Oda runs the query behind the answer again on your DataMind server and writes its full result, so the sheet holds the data as it is at the moment of the pull.

1. Oda adds a new sheet, writes the result as a formatted Excel table with a header row, fits the column widths and switches to the new sheet. The step row reads Pulling data into a new sheet, then the number of rows and the sheet.
2. The sheet is named after the query, or after the name you ask for. A long name is shortened to at most 28 characters, and if the workbook already has a sheet with that name, Oda adds a number, such as Sales 2.

Oda pulls only queries from Mind answers in the same chat. In another chat, ask the Mind again.

Put a query's result anywhere in the workbook

Oda can also write its own read-only query on a Mind's data and put the result into the workbook, for example Put all 2025 orders over 10,000 into a sheet or Write the order list to Report starting at B4. The step row reads Writing query results to the workbook, then the number of rows and where they went.

• Without a place named, the result goes to a new sheet called Query, as a table.
• Name a sheet that does not exist yet, and Oda adds it. Name an existing sheet, and Oda writes there with the header row at the cell you name, or at A1. Name only a cell, and Oda writes on the sheet you are on.
• The result is a formatted table unless you ask for plain cells.
• Oda does not write into cells that are part of an Excel table. To bring a pulled table up to date, refresh it instead.
• A result larger than 256 MB, or with more columns than fit on the sheet from its first cell, is not written, from a Mind's query either. Filter or aggregate the query, or select fewer columns.
• Writing over cells that hold data follows your permission mode: in Accept edits, the approval card lists the cells and shows what they hold now and after. When you pull again to the same cell, Oda also empties the cells of the earlier pull that the new result no longer covers, and the card lists those too. Its result says which cells it emptied, so Oda can tell you.

Oda runs the query before the approval card appears, so the card names the exact cells the result fills. Nothing is written until you allow it. For a query Oda wrote, the card also shows the SQL the rows come from and the Mind it runs on.

Limits of a pull

• A pull writes up to 100,000 rows. For a bigger result, ask for more rows: the approval card then asks you to confirm, with a line such as Write up to 250,000 rows, more than the 100,000 rows a pull writes by default. It asks in every permission mode, also Skip all permissions, and never offers Always allow in this chat.
• The most a pull writes is 1,048,575 rows, the rows a sheet holds below its header row. A result that starts lower on a sheet gets the rows that fit below that cell.
• Excel limits how many cells one table can cover, so a very wide result written as a table can stop sooner. Oda tells you; plain cells hold more rows.
• When a result has more rows than were written, Oda tells you, and the rest is not in the sheet. Narrow the question, or ask for more rows.
• If the query takes longer than 15 minutes to export, the pull stops before anything is written, and the step row reads This took too long and was stopped.
• If you click Stop while the rows of a new sheet are being written, Oda removes the new sheet again, so the workbook stays as it was. Rows written into an existing sheet stay; Details says which cells may hold part of the result.

Text, numbers and dates in the sheet

DataMind sends each value with the type its column has in the database, so nothing changes under you:

• Text stays exactly as stored: codes with leading zeros such as 00123, long identifiers, codes that look like dates or numbers, and text that starts with =, +, - or @, which never becomes a formula.
• Numbers land as numbers you can calculate with. A number with more than 15 significant digits, such as a 20-digit account number, stays text so no digit is lost, because Excel keeps only 15. Formulas such as SUM skip those cells.
• Dates and date-times land as real Excel dates, shown as yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss. Dates before 1 March 1900 stay text, and so do all dates on a version of Excel that cannot tell which date system the workbook uses.
• True and false values land as Excel's TRUE and FALSE.
• Long text lands in full up to 32,767 characters, the most one Excel cell holds; anything beyond that is cut.
• Empty values stay empty, and so do values that are not a number, such as NaN. Values of other kinds, such as lists, land as text.

Where each pull came from

Every pull, query result and refresh puts a note on the first cell of its header row, such as Source: DataMind OS - Sales (Revenue by region), 1200 rows, run 2026-10-16 09:05. It names the Mind, the query, the row count and the local time of the run. A query Oda wrote itself is named SQL query.

• A refresh updates the note with the new row count and time.
• A version of Excel without notes gets a comment with the same text instead; where Excel has neither, Oda says so after the pull.
• If the cell already holds a note or comment someone wrote, Oda keeps it and adds no source note.

To keep a list of every pull as well, open Settings from More options, the three dots in the pane header, and turn on Data Sources sheet under This workbook. Each pull then also adds a row to a visible sheet called Data Sources, which Oda adds the first time, with the columns Sheet, Table, Range, Mind, Query, Rows, Run at and SQL.

• SQL holds the query Oda wrote. A Mind's query keeps its SQL on your DataMind server, so the cell stays empty for it.
• A refresh updates the row of its table or range instead of adding one.
• If the workbook already has a sheet of your own called Data Sources, Oda adds Data Sources 2 and leaves yours as it is.
• The setting is off until you turn it on, and you cannot change it while Oda is working. The pane remembers it for your account on this computer.

Refresh pulled data

When the data behind a pull has changed, ask Oda to refresh it, for example Refresh the Revenue table. Name the table, or the sheet when it holds one pull; without either, Oda refreshes the pull on the sheet you are on.

1. An approval card asks first, in every permission mode, also Skip all permissions. It reads Replace the 120 rows in Revenue with the current result of its query and shows the SQL that runs, with the Mind it runs on: the SQL kept in the workbook, or, for rows a Mind's query put in the sheet, that query's name and SQL as your DataMind server keeps them. A preview shows the first cells it replaces, so you can check that it is the data you pulled.
2. After you click Allow, Oda runs the query again, with your own access, on the Mind the data first came from, whichever Mind is chosen in the Mind chip.
3. It replaces the rows of the table or range in place. A table grows or shrinks to the new row count, and cells the shorter result no longer covers are emptied. Number and date formats you gave a column, such as currency, stay.

The step row reads Refreshing pulled data, then the new and the earlier row count.

What runs is named in the workbook, which anyone who edits the file can change, so the card never offers Always allow in this chat and shows the SQL in full. Characters that would not show are spelled out, such as <U+200B>, and the card names the SQL's lines and characters. A refresh also keeps the row limit the pull was made with.

Oda refreshes nothing, and tells you why, when:

• the new result would grow over cells below or beside it that hold your data;
• the query now returns more columns than the table has, or the table has columns the query does not return that hold typed values (columns of formulas stay);
• the table has a Total Row, or its header row is turned off;
• a pulled range without a table no longer starts with the header row Oda wrote, for example after rows or columns were inserted or deleted;
• the workbook's record of the pull does not match the cells Oda wrote, such as a range of another size, or a table, named without its id, that holds another number of rows;
• your DataMind server no longer returns the Mind's query the rows came from;
• the pull came from a Mind you cannot use;
• the row count changes and your version of Excel cannot resize a table;
• the query Oda wrote was longer than 20,000 characters, too long to keep in the workbook.

If you click Stop while a refresh writes, the table can hold part of the old and part of the new rows; refresh it again.

Revert turn does not put back rows that a pull or a refresh wrote. The refresh card, and a card for a large pull into an existing sheet, can offer to copy the sheet first. In an up-to-date Excel in Microsoft 365 and in Excel on the web, Ctrl+Z undoes a pull or a refresh in one step. See Review and undo Oda's changes.

Where the data goes

• Oda sends the Mind your question, not your workbook.
• The rows go straight from the query's result into the sheet. The chat keeps only the sheet, the range, the table name, the column names and the row count, never the rows.
• The workbook keeps a short record of each pull, so it can be refreshed: the sheet and table or range that received the data, the Mind, the Mind's query or the SQL Oda wrote, the row limit, the row count and the time. It never holds the data. The most recent 200 records are kept for a workbook; beyond that, the oldest drop off.
• When someone you share the workbook with refreshes a pull, the query runs with their access, after they allow it on their own card.

When a Mind job does not finish

Sometimes a Mind job stops before it answers. The step row says why, and Details shows the full reason:

• The Mind could not finish this. The Mind stopped with an error.
• The Mind’s work was cancelled. The job was cancelled before it finished: you stopped the reply that left it running, Oda cancelled it at your request, or it was stopped in the DataMind web app.
• DataMind is busy. Wait a moment, then try again. Too many DataMind jobs are open for your account, or jobs were started too quickly.
• DataMind did not allow this for your account. Your account lacks a permission the step needs.
• This took too long and was stopped. A query preview ran for more than 10 minutes.

Ask the question again. If the same message keeps returning, contact your administrator with it.

Questions, answered

How long does a Mind's answer take?

Answers can take several minutes. Oda waits up to 10 minutes for one answer by default; if the Mind is still working then, Oda tells you and the Mind carries on. Ask for the answer later, and Oda checks back without asking the question again.

What happens if the Mind asks me something back?

Oda asks you the Mind's question in the chat and waits. Answer in your next message; Oda passes your answer back to the Mind and shows the finished answer.

Why do the numbers in the sheet differ from the Mind's answer?

A pull runs the query again and writes the data as it is at that moment. If the data changed after the Mind answered, for example because a load ran in between, the sheet shows the newer numbers.

Can I pull more than 100,000 rows?

Yes, up to 1,048,575 rows. Ask for more rows, and confirm on the approval card. The card asks in every permission mode.

Can Oda put the data into a sheet I already have?

Yes. Name the sheet and the cell where the header row should start. If the cells there hold data, the approval card lists them first, unless you chose Skip all permissions. Cells inside an Excel table are refused.

How do I update a table I pulled last week?

Ask Oda to refresh it, naming the table. After you allow it on the card, Oda runs the same query again and replaces the rows in place, keeping the formats you gave its columns.

Why does a refresh always ask, even in Skip all permissions?

The query a refresh runs is kept in the workbook, and anyone who edits the file can change it. The card shows what will run with your access, so you check it before anything runs.

Why did Oda not refresh my table?

The new result would cover cells that hold your data, the table's columns no longer match the query, the table has a Total Row or no header row, or your version of Excel cannot resize the table. Oda says which one. Fix it and ask again, or pull the data again to a new sheet.

How do I know where a table's numbers came from?

Point at the first cell of its header row: the note names the Mind, the query, the row count and when it ran. With Data Sources sheet on, the Data Sources sheet lists every pull.

Why did a number land in my sheet as text?

The column holds text in the database, or the number has more than 15 significant digits, which Excel cannot keep exactly. Codes with leading zeros stay text too, so nothing gets damaged.

Why could Oda not pull a Mind's result?

Minds that run queries as each user cannot have their results pulled into a sheet. Oda says Exporting is not available yet for Minds that run queries as each user. Use a preview query instead. Ask the Mind for a preview of the result instead. A pull also needs a query from a Mind answer in the same chat.

Does Stop also stop the Mind?

Yes, for the Mind questions of the reply you stop. A question that an earlier reply left running keeps going; ask Oda to cancel it.