So I have an excel spreadsheet with Product and Notes. I'd like to import this information into SQL and everytime people enter more products and notes into this excel sheet, it will automatically updated to the new one whenever I run the syntax?
I finished creating Product - Notes, which I imported current data into that table.I was planning to use insert into function, and every day insert the new values in the table. But this seems too manual.
Is there a way i can do this? The excel spreadsheet is updated daily.
I'm using SQL Server 2008
I'm sure this is possible. You could have the excel connect to your database and then write some macros to save the data to the table when there are changes or new rows are written.
It would not be easy. There is a lot of complicated logic here and excel was not written to be a front end for a database.
I believe the time spent changing your spreadsheet to work this way would be better spent actually writing a client server application to modify the database using a web application or a local application. Client server front end applications are easy to write these days with lots of examples, tools and templates. For someone with experience a simple data entry / modification form is just a couple of days work for a robust application.
Changing the excel file would be much harder.
You could use SSIS to import the excel data into your database on a scheduled basis.
Related
I have like 20 tables and one general table in SQL. That main table has indexes in in its columns. Using these indexes I create a view by getting the data from other 20 tables.
My question would be what would be the most efficient way to create a process of updating all of those tables accordingly using an Excel source. It should be future proof (new excel data being inputted once a month e.g.).
If it is a SSIS package how would it look, maybe you have any examples of something similar?
Thank you for the help.
I for one do not like SSIS. I find it a pain to troubleshoot, but for some tasks it's fine. If I were you I would:
Use the data import wizard from within Microsoft SQL Studio to import the Excel file.
Simply get the data into a staging table in SQL.
You'll have the option to save this as an SSIS package, good for automation
Now, write a pile of SQL to sort and update the data as you wish. Perhaps make a series of stored procedures
Create a job in SQL that runs your package, and then runs each stored procedure
Writing a solution in this fashion will allow you to troubleshoot each step and make reporting easy. You can just do the whole thing is SSIS but like I said, I'm not a fan of that tool. I like my code on the command line as much as possible for troubleshooting :)
I used this app from windows store to convert Excel into SQL script.
Then send script to our DBA.
Is there a way to export data from a MS Excel file into a SQL Server table automatically? Maybe this is done using a script of some kind.
If it's not possible to be completely automated, perhaps there's a way to do it using minimal user effort. (For example clicking a button or link)
There is a MS Excel spreadsheet where the data keeps having to be manually exported to SQL Server.
I've done this using Excel to Access before, but not too certain on how to do it using SQL Server (MS).
*MS Office 2013 and MS SQL Server 2012.
The other answers are ok. I just want to suggest an additional alternative.
If it is just 1 specific Excel file that is frequently updated, I would consider using VBA. For example, write some VBA code in Excel that uploads changes to the database when the spreadsheet is saved (or the user presses a button).
The problem with using a scheduled job is that Excel is basically a single user application. If someone has the spreadsheet open or is doing something in it when the scheduled job runs or moves the spreadsheet to a different folder, then the job may fail.
This way you also get the updated data in your database in something close to real time instead of waiting on a job to run. This might take more time and effort to set up though than some of the other answers.
You can use SQL Server Agent to run a scheduled job that imports data from an Excel worksheet into a SQL Server table.
The import is relatively straightforward to do using Integration Services, but if you've not used either of these before you might need to do some reading up on it.
You can do the following:
You need to create an SSIS package and then create a job to run the package.
The easiest way to create the SSIS package is with "Import and Export Data" tool of SQL Server. It has a nice step by step wizard.
You set everything it asks you from the source and the destinations. Until you get here, select the "Save SSIS Package":
Then you only have to create the job to run it :)
I am trying to make an application in VB6.0 using MS Excel as database. I have some textboxes on my VB Form to take input from user. I want to store those values in an Excel file. There will be another form where I want to retrieve the values from Excel and display it in textbox/labels.
Can I use SQL queries for inserting/retrieving the values while using Excel as database?
I just need a sample code for understanding the process. Rest I will try to manage.
Thanks in advance.
It's a poor idea.
While you can treat an Excel workbook as a data source via the Jet IISAM or ODBC Desktop Driver this is really meant for simple importing and exporting and has numerous limitations.
Save yourself some grief and just use Jet 4.0 to create and make use of MDB files. No MS Access is required, Jet 4.0 comes preinstalled and has for a rather long time now.
I am storing data in a backend database (PostgreSQL) which is running on a Linux machine. I want to be able to fetch data from the database, and populate a sheet in an excel workbook, so that I can carry out analysis in Excel.
It has been quite a while since I wrote anything in VBA, so I would appreciate some help (or links) in getting started. I would like to know the best way to approach this:
Pure VBA solution OR
Mixture of C# or other .Net language for data extraction logic and VBA for manipulating Excel objects (sheet data population etc)
Any ideas, tips, snippets and/or links that can help me get started on the twin objectives:
fetching data from a backend database (PostgreSQL) into Excel
populating a specified sheet in Excel with the columnar data retreived from the database
will be much appreciated.
If you are just trying to import data, Excel can do that without additional code. Just set up your windows client to connect to your postgreSQL server thru ODBC. (Here's one way guide to setting that part up: enter link description here
Then in Excel (Use a modern version, like 2007 or greater) from the "Data" tab, click on "Existing Connections" to connect to the ODBC connection you set up and pick the tables/data to import into excel. Once the spreadsheet has loaded the data, you can just click the "Refresh All" button to update the data.
I know it is possible to get data from a SQL database into an excel sheet, but i'm looking for a way to make it possible to edit the data in excel, and after editing, writing it back to the SQL database.
It appears this is not a function in excel, and google didn't come up with much usefull.
If you want to have the Excel file do all of the work (retrieve from DB; manipulate; update DB) then you could look at ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). You can get an overview at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms680928(VS.85).aspx
You want the Import/Export wizard in SQL Management Studio. Depending on which version of SQL Server you are using, open SSMS (connect to the SQL instance you desire), right click on the database you want to import into and select Tasks.. "Import Data".
In the wizard, click Next (past the intro screen) and from the Data Source drop list select "Microsoft Excel". You specify the path and file name of the Excel spreadsheet, whether you have column headings or not.. then press Next. Just follow the wizard through, it'll set up the destination (can be SQL Server or another destination) etc.
There is help available for this process in SQL Server Books Online and more (a walkthrough) from MSDN.
If you need something deployable/more robust (or less wizard driven) then you'd need to take a look at SQL Server Integration Services (for a more "Enterprise" and security conscious approach). It's probably overkill for what you want to accomplish though.
There is a new Excel plug-in named "MySQL for Excel" : http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/windows/
I just had a need to do this, and this thread has been quiet for a long time, so I thought it might be useful to supply a recent data point.
In my application roving salespeople use a copy of an Excel workbook that tracks the progress of a prospect through a loan application. The current stage of the application needs to be automatically saved back to a remote SQL database so that we can run reporting on it.
Rejected methods for updating the database from Excel:
SSIS and OpenRowSet are both methods for allowing SQL Server to pull the data from Excel, and don't work very well when the Excel workbook is sitting in an undefined location on a user's computer, and certainly not when the workbook is currently open in Excel.
ADO is now, if not actually deprecated, nevertheless looking very long in the tooth. Also, I wanted the solution to be robust in the face of the user possibly not being connected to the internet.
I also considered running a web API on the destination server. Macros in the Excel workbook connect to the web API to transfer data. However, it can sometimes be painful to allow a web API to talk to the outside world. Also, the code to make it robust in the face of temporary loss of internet connection is painful.
The adopted solution:
The solution I plan to adopt is low-tech: email. Excel emails the data to an address hosted on an Exchange server. Everyone in the company has Outlook installed, so the emails are sent by programmatically adding them to the Outlook Outbox. Outlook nicely handles the case when the user is offline. At the server end, a custom C# executable, fired up at regular intervals by the Task Scheduler, polls the inbox and processes the emails.
You could use try these add-ins :
www.QueryCell.com (I created this one)
www.SQLDrill.com
www.Excel-DB.net
You can use the OPENROWSET function to manipulate Excel data from a T-SQL script. Example usage would be:
UPDATE OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0',
'Excel 8.0;DATABASE=c:\MySpreadsheet.xls',
'Select * from MyTable')
SET Field1='Value1' WHERE Field2 = 'Value2'