How to pull data into excel from access? - vba

Question

I have an excel worksheet that has two sheets. On the first one i have the printable page and the second sheet is for the first to pull data from using vlookup. The second sheet consists of 8 columns. The first column is the ID that's being used by vlookup on the first page. The second is for first/last name. What i want to do is to make excel search for this (first/last name) in an access database and then retrieve and fill 3 other columns from the data in access. There are 2 tables that i want it to look into. It will find the name in either one of them and there are no duplicates. Does anyone have any idea how i might achieve this? Thanks!

Answer 1

You have a few choices. One is to use an .ODC using "Data-Get External Data". If you go through the wizard you can store the search criteria in the external data link (and if desired save this as an .ODC file). If you record a Macro when doing this, you will see where you can alter the recorded VBA code to substitute your own criteria from Excel (e.g, First/Lame name).
Another way, if your data isn't too big is to bring in a single sheet with "Data-GetExternalData" containing all your data then use VLookup (or index/match) to just retrieve the appropriate names. This works well when your database is not too big to bring entirely into Excel, efficiently.
But I use the following code because it's slick and doesn't require exposing any connection info (including passwords) in the .ODC (stored external data link). It's also faster. In this example, I use ADO because it's a SQL/Server database, but if the data is in Access (.ACCDB or MDB) then you can use ordinary DAO. If you need the ADO, don't forget to include the ADO library in your references.
In my example, I used a date range to find the data I wanted. In your case, it would be Lname and Fname instead of a date range.
This Excel VBA code is what I use.
Sub RefreshReport()
On Error GoTo Err_Handler
verrevent = "RefreshReport"
Dim rs As New ADODB.Recordset
If cn.State = 0 Then OpenNewConnection
Dim xlRange As Excel.Range
'Delete prior data
Range("MyTargetTable").EntireRow.Delete
'Call sproc to fetch member match
'This uses SPROC, but could be any SQL statement passing search criteria from Excel
vsql = "sproc_my_procedure '" & Range("BegDate") & "' ,'" & Range("EndDate") & "'"
'Call sproc to fetch member match
Set xlRange = Range("MyTargetDataSheet!A2")
Set rs = cn.Execute(vsql)
xlRange.Cells.CopyFromRecordset rs
'Refresh a pivot table if you have one
Set pt = Sheets("Summary").PivotTables("PivotTable1")
pt.RefreshTable
MsgBox ("Refresh Complete")
Exit_Proc:
Exit Sub
Err_Handler:
MsgBox ("Refresh program error. Please snip and send." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Err " & Err.Number & " " & verrevent & " " & vbCrLf & Err.Description & vbCrLf)
Resume Exit_Proc
End Sub