excel column data

im trying to access data in an excel spreadsheet using excel source component...the excel column is type of general and most of the data is numeric, some string..now, when ii hit the preview button, the string data would show up as NULL and the numeric data are correct...i've changed the excel column to TEXT data type and same result, how can i get the string data from this column?OK..GOT IT, ADDING NMEX=1 IN THE EXCEL CONNECTION MANAGER ALLOWS THE READER TO READ MIXED DATA IN THE COLUMN SINCE EXCEL USE THE FIRST 8 ROWS TO DETERMINE THE DATATYPE OF THE COLUMN|||Correction...that's "IMEX" not "NMEX".sql