Dynamic export from SQL Server Database to Excel - excel

Question

I am building a patient record export system to extract data from SQL Server. The customer would like the data in the form of an Excel workbook.
The way that the data is held is such that the tables in the database are created dynamically and the column names change depending on the export parameters.
What I want to do is enumerate the tables in the database then export (or import) those tables (including column headers) to Excel in separate sheets into a single workbook.
SO:-
If Database is:-
dbo.table1 (name, address, postcode)
dbo.table2 (height, weight, headcirc)
I end up with an Excel workbook:-
Sheet1: Name Address Postcode
Sheet2: Height Weight, Headcirc
At the moment, every method I have looked at requires Excel to know the structure of the data it is receiving in advance. For a given export it is impossible to know the number of tables or the names of the columns in those tables in advance.
For example OPENROWSET requires column headers to be present in the Excel workbook.
SSIS seems to require fixed mappings to both the SQL Table columns and the Excel Workbook columns.
The only other approach I can think of is to export all tables to CSV using a dynamic BCP process, then to see if I can find some VBA that would allow me to assimilate all CSV files from a folder into a single Excel workbook as separate sheets - but this seems very clunky.
I am sure this must be possible - has anyone achieved this? What method would work?

Answer 1

There are probably multiple ways to do this kind of thing. Some of these techniques may work, or may not work, depending on your setup, what versions of Excel and SQL Server you have installed, what other software you have installed, etc...
1) Export data to existing EXCEL file from SQL Server table
insert into OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0',
'Excel 8.0;Database=D:\testing.xls;',
'SELECT * FROM [SheetName$]') select * from SQLServerTable
2) If you don't want to create an EXCEL file in advance and want to export data to it, use
EXEC sp_makewebtask
#outputfile = 'd:\testing.xls',
#query = 'Select * from Database_name..SQLServerTable',
#colheaders =1,
#FixedFont=0,#lastupdated=0,#resultstitle='Testing details'
32-bit and 64-bit drivers:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13255
You can run this VBA in Excel.
Sub TestMacro()
' Create a connection object.
Dim cnPubs As ADODB.Connection
Set cnPubs = New ADODB.Connection
' Provide the connection string.
Dim strConn As String
'Use the SQL Server OLE DB Provider.
strConn = "PROVIDER=SQLOLEDB;"
'Connect to the Pubs database on the local server.
strConn = strConn & "DATA SOURCE=(local);INITIAL CATALOG=Name_of_your_DB;"
'Use an integrated login.
strConn = strConn & " INTEGRATED SECURITY=sspi;"
'Now open the connection.
cnPubs.Open strConn
' Create a recordset object.
Dim rsPubs As ADODB.Recordset
Set rsPubs = New ADODB.Recordset
With rsPubs
' Assign the Connection object.
.ActiveConnection = cnPubs
' Extract the required records.
.Open "SELECT * FROM Categories"
' Copy the records into cell A1 on Sheet1.
Sheet1.Range("A1").CopyFromRecordset rsPubs
' Tidy up
.Close
End With
cnPubs.Close
Set rsPubs = Nothing
Set cnPubs = Nothing
End Sub
Or...
Sub ADOExcelSQLServer()
Dim Cn As ADODB.Connection
Dim Server_Name As String
Dim Database_Name As String
Dim User_ID As String
Dim Password As String
Dim SQLStr As String
Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset
Set rs = New ADODB.Recordset
Server_Name = "your_server_name" ' Enter your server name here
Database_Name = "your_database_name" ' Enter your database name here
User_ID = "" ' enter your user ID here
Password = "" ' Enter your password here
SQLStr = "SELECT * FROM Orders" ' Enter your SQL here
Set Cn = New ADODB.Connection
Cn.Open "Driver={SQL Server};Server=" & Server_Name & ";Database=" & Database_Name & _
";Uid=" & User_ID & ";Pwd=" & Password & ";"
rs.Open SQLStr, Cn, adOpenStatic
With Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:Z500")
.ClearContents
.CopyFromRecordset rs
End With
rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
Cn.Close
Set Cn = Nothing
End Sub