Excel as Database to pull bulk records VBA example

Database

Since Excel itself considered as a basic database which support various relationships, joins, SQL queries etc. In this article we will see how we connect a Excel workbook as database quickly step by step using ADODB COM (Component Object Model) and pull bulk records using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).

Objects

ConnectionString : string having database details like name, credentials
Connection : Connection the database
Command : refers to a valid SQL statement which designed to get the data
Recordset : holds result from the database in Row/Column format
Fields : refers to individual column in recordset

ADODB complete reference

Various Connection strings to connect any Excel file (xlsm, xls, xlsx, xlsb etc.)
Different types of locking in ADODB
Different cursor types in ADODB
Understand Recordset object

Source file

Create a excel file which contains information like shown below and name excel file as “data.xlsx“

Reference ADODB

Open Visual Basic Editor add reference for “Microsoft ActiveX Data Object 6.0 Library“, there are many different versions like 2.0, 2.1, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7 2.8 refers various releases based on Excel versions. Since I am using Office 2016 hence referring the latest 6.0 in this example.

Navigate to Tools menu
Select References…
Select “Microsoft ActiveX Data Object 6.0 Library” as shown below

Connection String

Write connection string. You have to change your file name and path in given string:

Dim strConnection As String
strConnection = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;" _
                       & "User ID=Admin;" _
                       & "Data Source=C:\Users\nawazish\Downloads\data.xlsx;" _
                       & "Mode=Read;" _
                       & "Extended Properties=""HDR=YES;IMEX=1;MaxScanRows=0;Excel 12.0;"";" _
                       & "Jet OLEDB:Engine Type=34;"

Create connection

Dim oConnection As ADODB.Connection
Set oConnection = New ADODB.Connection

Open connection

ConnectionString : a valid string
UserID: username if database is password protect
Password: password if database or file is password protect
Options : its long variable and optional

Code example

oConnection.Open strConnection

Recordset

Dim oDataRecordset As ADODB.Recordset
Dim strCommand As String
'SQL statement
strCommand = "SELECT * FROM [emp$]"
'Execute sql on database and get result
Set oDataRecordset = oConnection.Execute(strCommand)

Note: emp# is the sheet name in my data.xlsx file which turns as table name in ADODB

Populate result

ActiveSheet.Range("A1").CopyFromRecordset oDataRecordset

Close recordset

oDataRecordset.Close
'Memory cleanup
Set oDataRecordset=Nothing

Close connection

oConnection.Close
'Memory cleanup
Set oConnection=Nothing

Complete code example

Public Sub PullBulkRecordset()
	'variables and objects
    Dim strConnection As String
    Dim strCommand As String
    Dim oDataRecordset As ADODB.Recordset
    Dim oConnection As ADODB.Connection
    
	'Connection string
    strConnection = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;" _
                       & "User ID=Admin;" _
                       & "Data Source=C:\Users\Downloads\data.xlsx;" _
                       & "Mode=Read;" _
                       & "Extended Properties=""HDR=YES;IMEX=1;MaxScanRows=0;Excel 12.0;"";" _
                       & "Jet OLEDB:Engine Type=34;"
    
	'SQL statement
    strCommand = "SELECT * FROM [emp$]"
    
	'Connection initiation
    Set oConnection = New ADODB.Connection
    
	'Open connection
    oConnection.Open strConnection
    
	'Execute connection and get result
    Set oDataRecordset = oConnection.Execute(strCommand)
    
	'Populate records in excel
    ActiveSheet.Range("A1").CopyFromRecordset oDataRecordset
    
	'Close recordset
    oDataRecordset.Close
    
	'Memory cleanup
    Set oDataRecordset = Nothing
    
	'Close Connection
    oConnection.Close
    
	'Memory cleanup
    Set oConnection = Nothing
End Sub

Please leave your comments or queries under comment section also please do subscribe to out blogs to keep your self upto date.

Share on Facebook

Export Generic Collection to PDF ASP.Net Core MVC

PDF Sometime you may in need to export data in PDF. Following code will use Syncfusion Package and give you ready made Table pushed from Generic collection. Put below code in Repository Put below code in Controller JavaScript Code Finally you can attach id to an element in html and in JavaScript on Document ready […]

Export Excel ASP.Net Core MVC

Excel Export Following Example helps you to export excel from database in a generic way using EPPlus library. Requirement EPPlus Nuget Package Code to Repository Supporting Method Code to Controller Code to JavaScript JavaScript Supporting Method You can hit ExportToExcel() call in document ready method in JavaScript document by pointing any id written in HTML […]

Save/Retrieve Session ASP.Net Core MVC

Session Plays a vital role while dealing with caching in your browser. ASP.Net Core offers Session caching fast and reliable way. Here is the practical example. Put following code anywhere in common class or Repository, it has two methods Generic in nature Add/Get. Add Method will allow you to cache object in Browser memory and […]

Number List in Word Document using C# code example

Number List Microsoft Word offers feature by which you can auto number your list in various formats. In this article we will write code to dynamically generate a numbered list in a document using C#. C# Code example Note: You have to add Microsoft Word Interop library as reference to enable Using statement or create […]

Sorting in Microsoft Word using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)

Sorting Do you know, Microsoft Word has capability to perform sorting over a document. In this article we will write code to sort paragraphs in Alphabetical order using visual basic for applications code. Before code Code example Put above code in a module, Select number of paragraphs that you would like to sort in A-Z […]

EPPlus Open Office Xml Office solution using C#

EPPlus Is an open Office XML solution, highly useful library capable to manipulate Microsoft Excel similar to Introp APIs. Why EPPlus? As per Microsoft the solutions (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook etc) built for client architecture but what about Servers? Let’s take an example that I have recently faced and EPPlus helped me a lot here. […]

String vs StringBuilder C#.Net with code example

String C# class which offers capability to store any type of string data into a variable. Strings are immutable (non-modifiable) cause performance overhead because each time we modify a string it creates a copy of modified instance into the memory, hence, as a practice string should be avoided for large string operations. Following is the […]

Var vs. Dynamic C# with code example

Var vs. Dynamic C# offers variety with flavors to accomplish the task to the developers. var keyword defines a static nature which gets resolve at compile-time introduced in C# 3.0 where dynamic gets resolved at runtime introduced in C# 4.0. Var is a statically type variable, which means values of these variables gets decoded at […]

Multi-threading in C#.Net with step by step code example

Multi-threading Is a concept to execute multiple tasks or process simultaneously. Basically multi-threading enables paths to your application to execute multiple processes. Multi-threading can be achieved in C# using System.Threading name space which provides complete control over threading. Let’s write example code where we will execute two different methods to print numbers using loop and […]

Create a progress bar in Excel using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)

Progress bar In this article we will create one progress bar using Excel vba with step by step example. User can change feel and look of the UserForm as per their need and mimic the logic to fit in their solution. Design Insert a user form Add one label on it and change Caption property […]