28/05/13

VBA in EXCEL - Connect to SQL Server

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VBA in EXCEL - Connect to SQL Server

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Roda Chan

30 Points

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Thursday, April 13, 2006 1:52 AM

I am a new programmer try to write some VBA codes in excel to get data out from the Sql
server database. When I try to compile the codes, it said "compile error: user defined typed
not defined" for the following sentences

Dim dbsCurrent As Database

Dim qdfPassThrough As QueryDef
Dim qdfLocal As QueryDef
Dim rstTopFive As Recordset
Dim strMessage As String
What I need to define for Database,recordset or QueryDef? Please help!!!
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Roda Chan

30 Points
Thursday, April 13, 2006 4:42 AM

Ah.... I found an answer. I need to add the reference of DAO object library.

But there is another problem.......

sqlstring = "select * from customer"

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connstring =
"ODBC;UID=userid;PWD=password;DATABASE=db;DSN=datasource;dbDriverNoPrompt"
With ActiveSheet.QueryTables.Add(Connection:=connstring, Destination:=Range("B1"),
Sql:=sqlstring)
.Refresh
End With
It always displays the ODBC Data Sources dialog box even though I have passed all the
information in the connstring. Can anyone help please??

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MS ISV Buddy Team

4,945 Points
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 3:13 PM

Per our support engineer:

We have Various ways to connect to a SQL server:

- Using ADODB SQL ODBC provider with DSN
- Using ADODB SQL ODBCprovider without DSN
- ADO SQL OLEDB provider for authenticated connections
In below code example, I've used the OLEDB provider for SQL using a trusted
connection.
===
Function Get_BCM_Connection(Optional ByVal _
ServerName As String = _
"Percy\MicrosoftBCM") As ADODB.Connection
'Returns an ADODB Connection object to Outlook 2003 Business Contact _
'Manager installed locally
'--------------------------------Dim cn As New ADODB.Connection

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On Error GoTo ErrHand

With cn
.ConnectionString = "Provider=SQLOLEDB; " & _
"Data Source=" & ServerName & "; " & _
"Initial Catalog=MSBusinessContactManager;" & _
"User ID=sa; Password=; Trusted_Connection=yes"
.Open
End With
Set Get_BCM_Connection = cn
ExitHere:
On Error Resume Next
cn.Close: Set cn = Nothing
Err.Clear
Exit Function
ErrHand:
Set Get_BCM_Connection = Nothing
MsgBox "Connection not propertly defined.", vbExclamation
Resume ExitHere
End Function
===
And here is a KB : How To Import Data from Microsoft SQL Server into
Microsoft Excel (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;enus;306125&sd=tech )
I hope its helpful.
-brenda (ISV Buddy Team)
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MS ISV Buddy Team

4,945 Points
Tuesday, May 09, 2006 3:42 PM

Due to an overlap in communication, I have more information on this topic that I might as
well post in case it helps someone.

Using VBA to Get At SQL Server Data

If you're after a less manual process, the last method is a bit more complex, but even more powerful.
Microsoft Excel, like all newer versions of Microsoft Office products, has a complete programming
interface in the guise of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). If you've got any programming experience
at all, you can write code against a database.
Again, all the previous warnings about locking apply. Additional warnings are warranted here, since
with programming you can affect data in the database as well as reading from it.
There are a few places you can use VBA in Excel, such as custom functions and macros, but we'll stick
with macros for this example. The basic process is that you create a macro, edit it, and then run it.
You edit the macro inside an editor, in which you type the code to connect, access, and close the
connection to a database. Here's the process to create your own macro to connect to SQL Server
programmatically:
1.

Open Excel.

2.

Click on Tools, then Macro, and then Macros...

3.

Name the Macro, and then click Create.

4.

In the editor window, type the following information, substituting the proper names for the
server and the tables you want in between the "Sub xxxx" and "End Sub" tags:

' Declare the QueryTable object

Dim qt As QueryTable
' Set up the SQL Statement
sqlstring = "select au_fname, au_lname from authors"
' Set up the connection string, reference an ODBC connection
' There are several ways to do this
' Leave the name and password blank for NT authentication
connstring = _
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"ODBC;DSN=pubs;UID=;PWD=;Database=pubs"
' Now implement the connection, run the query, and add
' the results to the spreadsheet starting at row A1
With ActiveSheet.QueryTables.Add(Connection:=connstring, Destination:=Range("A1"), Sql:=s
qlstring)
.Refresh

End With

Save and close the macro, and run it from the same menu you accessed in step 2.
NOTE
There are probably at least ten programmatic ways to do this exact same thing and all of them are
correct! If you're really interested in programming using VBA, you'll find several good books here at
InformIT and also on Safari.
Keeping The Database Connection Live
We now move away from the "Transfer In and Out" category to the "Linked Data" category of methods.
I'll describe the two main methods to link data, both of which link Excel data into a SQL Server query.
There are ways to use Excel to manage data directly in SQL Server, but they involve a bit more
programming, and I've found them to be a bit clumsy especially for daily use. Excel simply doesn't
handle locks and connectivity issues as well as you need for large-scale production solutions.
You could also code a solution that accesses data stored in an Excel spreadsheet and update a SQL
Server table as a result, but this is really event-driven and not a linked solution. (Again, there's a great
deal of programming help in that vein here on InformIT.)
So returning to the methods I've found easy to implement, there is a two-step process you can use to
query data in an Excel spreadsheet.
First, you'll need to create a linked server. Here's how to do that:
1.

Open Query Analyzer.

2.

Run the following code:

-- Here we set up the linked server using the JET provider

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver N'ExcelLink',
@srvproduct = N'',
@provider = N'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0',
@datasrc = N'C:\temp\test.xls',
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@provstr = N'Excel 8.0;'

GO

By doing so, you create a linked server, and give that connection a name. Notice also the name of the
spreadsheet, which can also be a share location. You only have to do this once for each spreadsheet; if
you're not going to access that spreadsheet again, it's a good idea to drop the linked server after you've
used it.
Now that we have a linked server, we can access the data. The process for this method is as follows:
1.

In a query tool such as Query Analyzer, type the following:

-- Setup the user connection for the spreadsheet

EXEC sp_addlinkedsrvlogin 'ExcelLink', 'false'
GO
-- Get the spreadsheet data - SCHOOLSP is the tab name
SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY(ExcelLink, 'select * from [SCHOOLSP$]')

GO

In this section, we've used the OPENQUERY function, which passes the query on to the provider. You'll
find the query language is pretty limited at times, with Excel. If the queries aren't selective enough, set
up another worksheet in the workbook with the data you want, and query that one.
As you can see, you have several options open to integrate data between Microsoft Excel and SQL
Server. Keep the limitations in mind, and get that data out there!

Online Resources
These links are from Microsoft. There are several others out there but these deal with some of the issues
that I brought up in the article.
Here's an article that details the data type woes with DTS and Excel imports.
This article from Microsoft details the process of using DTS with Excel.
Microsoft has a larger discussion of ODBC to Excel datatype issues here.
This Microsoft article details programming with ADO against Excel files it shows you how to open one
as a database.

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-brenda (ISV Buddy Team)

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mayberce

0 Points
Friday, May 01, 2009 5:23 PM

Thanks for posing this!

You seemed to have stopped in mid stream.

Can you provide the steps for the following?:
' Now implement the connection, run the query, and add
' the results to the spreadsheet starting at row A1
???

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Quote

mayberce

0 Points
Friday, May 01, 2009 5:24 PM

Thanks for posing this!

You seemed to have stopped in mid stream.

Can you provide the steps for the following?:
' Now implement the connection, run the query, and add
' the results to the spreadsheet starting at row A1
???

Reply

Quote

Daniel_DeHaven Tualatin Valley Fire And...

165 Points
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 7:23 PM

A little late to help this situation but for anyone else with a similar problem of having the ODBC

Data Sources dialog box open every time they execute code to return query data. I've found
this issue is due to the fact that the QueryTable "Save Password" has not been set to "True"

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via code, or manually you can set this in the C onnection Properties dialog box.
As long as you are supplying the password with code and have the "Save Password" property
set to True (or checked in the dialog box) then the ODBC Data Sources dialog box should only
appear the first time you execute the code, and sometimes it doesn't display even on the first
time as long as you have the ODBC connection set-up on your machine.
Dan

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