My client wants to store basic relational data in Access. So far, so good. However, ideally, he'd like for me to create an Excel spreadsheet that would allow users to create and modify data types without having to work with Access software or know about databases. To be more specific, he wants a single master spreadsheet that would let people manage data for several different "projects." Each project would have basic attributes and other related data such as employees working on it, numbered to do items with associated data, etc. I've worked with databases before and it's a neat, textbook example of a relational database. I have a model for the data already, and making an Access form to fill it in would be straightforward.
However, here's the thing: he wants creating new attributes and tables completely intuitive within the Excel spreasheet--as easy as clicking an "add student" button or even add a new category of data. For instance, in the future, he may add a list of contractors working on the project, and it would be nice to be able to have a button that would allow you to essentially create that new table. There won't be a great amount of data, though, and I'm not sure if referential integrity and normalization is crucial. For instance, the list of contractors he creates wouldn't need to be perfectly linked up so that each company only appears once in the database.
So, what should I do? Can I accomplish this within Excel spreadsheets using macros? Can you make buttons in Excel that would say "create a new table," which would (run a VBScript to) create a new database table to be associated with each project, and then allow you to format it? Should I not bother with Excel at all and basically write a Visual Basic program? I'm familiar with general programming and databases, but I am fairly new to Excel, Access, and Visual Basic. If you could point me in the right direction--to tutorials, examples, advice, general concepts, etc--it would be much appreciated.
Excel is essentially for analyzing data, while Access is essentially for storing and processing relational data. Now, having said that, what you are trying to do is probably possible but it is really not taking advantage of the features the software where optimized for.
Furthermore, adding "tables to be associated with each project" does not seem as the "relational way of doing it", like a complex solution for a simple problem.
Perhaps you should consider some alternatives:
If the amount of data is small and not very complex, would there really be any need for Access or could you just as well use Excel for data storage and data manipulation?
Depending on how the data is structured, perhaps you can create a view or stored procedure in Access and used it as an linked table in Excel?
Perhaps you can develop the set of forms you need in Access and turn it to an stand-alone application (no need for Access installed on the client's computers)
For a person entering data, Access is built so they don't need to understand relational data at all. If you let them enter data in Excel, you will have to excessively code it to give you the same control in Access or you run the risk of letting them free form data to the point you won't be able to import it back into Access.
Unless there are very complex calculations and a need for the user to 'tweak' the report layout, give them a data entry form.
Beware of the "I'm just so use to doing it in Excel I don't want to relearn it in Access" notion. The data entry can be made very intuitive and may save them time in the long-run.
Seems like there is an owner/manager who understands Excel and wants the ability to update it without you if needed.
A little background to my question. I work for a company that is charged with retrieving data from databases from all 50 states and DC. I take this data and reformat it in excel. Once it's reformatted I use SQL Server to upload it to our website vetportal.agdata.net. While some states are not so bad, retrieving information from others make it very painful to sort through.
I have 2 questions:
Can a code be written so that a new database can be crossed checked with the old database (our records) and update the information in the old database while also excluding duplicate information?
Can a code be written to take a number from an open excel sheet, switch over to an open website, input the number, search for the individual, and extract his/her information, and finally update the excel with that information then move on to the next person? Ex, WA State's website is set up so that you can only look up one person at a time which is very tedious when going through 1200+ individuals.
I have some experience with C++ and have written programs that draw code from other files, but mainly only equations or values which then get evaluated in my code so I know this is a bit different.
I guess if you have a repetitive technological problem you can solve it with some programming.
Your questions:
You can make that with a little app, that using SQL reads the information from the new database and checks/updates the information of the old database.
This code is a little more difficult to do, but i guess it can be done. In C++, I don't know if there is any library that can already open Excel files, but in Java you have the Apache POI, that way you can open your excel file in the application, then while iterating through the information you open the website in the application, and submit the form you want with your number, getting the response and parsing it.
If you want to make this in Java I think it will not waste you too much time if you know C++ . The only exception is opening the website in java and parsing it which will take more time to learn and do.
Hope it helps!
1) Yes. Depending on the databases, you may be able to do a db to db connection. You could then write a query using an INNER JOIN to update information in the old database and exclude duplicates.
2) A few ways to approach this problem. Depending on your language (mine is PHP) you could use an open source class such as PHPExcel to open the sheet and fetch & update website data (cURL). You could also write some VBA within Excel that could do similar functionality.
I'm in a VERY difficult problem.
I have a Microsoft Access Data Base, but it was made in the most chaotic way possible. The DB has like 150+ tables, Only uses like 50% of the tables. The relations are almost random. But, somehow, it delivers some information.
I need to get a particular component of the DB, but is so tangled that I can not manage to get into the table that creates that value. I revised every table, one by one, and found nothing.
I used mdbtools for Linux to try to inspect with more details the DB. But unfortunately has not been developed in years, and it closes every time. Maybe because the DB is "big" ? -700 mg-
I'm wondering: is there a way to see all the relations the arrives to the particular value I'm looking? Or to decompile the DB? I have no idea in which language it was made. I'm suspecting that it was made in Visual, just because is rather crappy.
Well, waiting for some help.
I would suggest using (still) MS Access for this. But, if relationships look messy on the diagram, you can query one of the system tables (MSysRelationships) directly to get ALL the relationships you need (e.g. for particular table etc.):
To unhide system tables in early versions of Access (97-2003), follow the instructions here:
For Access 2007, do the following:
I have a ton of data in a sql database which I would like to be able to import and display in excel (I can already do this) and additionally modify or append to the dataset within excel and write the changes/additions back to the database.
What is the best way to go about doing something like this?
Please let me know, thanks!
The way to do this is via Sql Server's DTS/SSIS capabilities. Create SSIS packages for Excel import and export and execute them as needed.
However you still have the issue of people having to share this massive spread sheet. You should consider importing the data into the db permanently and providing a winforms interface for the data entry. You'd be surprised how quickly you could whip out an app with a databound grid view control that would give you decent, Excel-like ability to add/edit/delete table data.
Although Excel is great at displaying/reporting on data stored within a SQL DB, it has no built-in controls for updating the data.
I would recommend investigating using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) or based on your coding experience/tools available to you, VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office).
This method will allow all of your users to share the spreadsheet at the same time and allow incremental updates plus validation of the data being entered by the user at the point they enter it.
All the usual gotchas apply though - mainly GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out). Correctly authenticate your users and what they are allowed to update
I am building a small application for a friend and they'd like to be able to use Excel as the front end. (the UI will basically be userforms in Excel). They have a bunch of data in Excel that they would like to be able to query but I do not want to use excel as a database as I don't think it is fit for that purpose and am considering using Access. [BTW, I know Access has its shortcomings but there is zero budget available and Access already on friend's PC]
To summarise, I am considering dumping a bunch of data into Access and then using Excel as a front end to query the database and display results in a userform style environment.
Questions:
How easy is it to link to Access from Excel using ADO / DAO? Is it quite limited in terms of functionality or can I get creative?
Do I pay a performance penalty (vs.using forms in Access as the UI)?
Assuming that the database will always be updated using ADO / DAO commands from within Excel VBA, does that mean I can have multiple Excel users using that one single Access database and not run into any concurrency issues etc.?
Any other things I should be aware of?
I have strong Excel VBA skills and think I can overcome Access VBA quite quickly but never really done Excel / Access link before. I could shoehorn the data into Excel and use as a quasi-database but that just seems more pain than it is worth (and not a robust long term solution)
Any advice appreciated.
Alex
I'm sure you'll get a ton of "don't do this" answers, and I must say, there is good reason. This isn't an ideal solution....
That being said, I've gone down this road (and similar ones) before, mostly because the job specified it as a hard requirement and I couldn't talk around it.
Here are a few things to consider with this:
How easy is it to link to Access from Excel using ADO / DAO? Is it quite limited in terms of functionality or can I get creative?
It's fairly straitforward. You're more limited than you would be doing things using other tools, since VBA and Excel forms is a bit more limiting than most full programming languages, but there isn't anything that will be a show stopper. It works - sometimes its a bit ugly, but it does work. In my last company, I often had to do this - and occasionally was pulling data from Access and Oracle via VBA in Excel.
Do I pay a performance penalty (vs.using forms in Access as the UI)?
My experience is that there is definitely a perf. penalty in doing this. I never cared (in my use case, things were small enough that it was reasonable), but going Excel<->Access is a lot slower than just working in Access directly. Part of it depends on what you want to do....
In my case, the thing that seemed to be the absolute slowest (and most painful) was trying to fill in Excel spreadsheets based on Access data. This wasn't fun, and was often very slow. If you have to go down this road, make sure to do everything with Excel hidden/invisible, or the redrawing will absolutely kill you.
Assuming that the database will always be updated using ADO / DAO commands from within Excel VBA, does that mean I can have multiple Excel users using that one single Access database and not run into any concurrency issues etc.?
You're pretty much using Excel as a client - the same way you would use a WinForms application or any other tool. The ADO/DAO clients for Access are pretty good, so you probably won't run into any concurrency issues.
That being said, Access does NOT scale well. This works great if you have 2 or 3 (or even 10) users. If you are going to have 100, you'll probably run into problems. Also, I tended to find that Access needed regular maintenance in order to not have corruption issues. Regular backups of the Access DB are a must. Compacting the access database on a regular basis will help prevent database corruption, in my experience.
Any other things I should be aware of?
You're doing this the hard way. Using Excel to hit Access is going to be a lot more work than just using Access directly.
I'd recommend looking into the Access VBA API - most of it is the same as Excel, so you'll have a small learning curve. The parts that are different just make this easier. You'll also have all of the advantages of Access reporting and Forms, which are much more data-oriented than the ones in Excel. The reporting can be great for things like this, and having the Macros and Reports will make life easier in the long run. If the user's going to be using forms to manage everything, doing the forms in Access will be very, very similar to doing them in Excel, and will look nearly identical, but will make everything faster and smoother.
I do this all the time. If you're using ADO, you're not really using Access, but Jet, the underlying database. That means anybody with Excel can use the app - Access not required. Oh I should mention, the place I work bought a bunch of Office Small Business licenses - no Access. Prior to working here, I would have assumed that anyone who had Excel would also have Access. Not so.
I create one class for every table in Access. I very rarely run queries through ADO, instead I keep that logic in the class modules. I read in with a SELECT statement and write out with and UPDATE or INSERT using the Execute method of the ADODB.Connection object.
See http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2008/12/21/vba-framework-ii/
if you want to see how I set up my code.
To answer your questions: It will be a small learning curve for you if you already know Excel VBA, but there will be some learning to do; you will pay a performance penalty over doing it all in Access, but it's not that bad and only you can decide if it's worth it; and you can have multiple people accessing the database.
Just skip the excel part - the excel user forms are just a poor man's version of the way more robust Access forms. Also Access VBA is identical to Excel VBA - you just have to learn Access' object model. With a simple application you won't need to write much VBA anyways because in Access you can wire things together quite easily.
If the end user has Access, it might be easier to develop the whole thing in Access. Access has some WYSIWYG form design tools built-in.
Unless there is a strong advantage to running your user form in Excel then I would go with a 100% Access solution that would export the reports and data to Excel on an ad-hoc basis.
From what you describe, Access seems the stronger contender as it is built for working with data:
you would have a lot more tools at your disposal to solve any data problems than have to go around the limitations of Excel and shoehorn it into becoming Access...
As for your questions:
Very easy. There have been some other questions on SO on that subject.
See for instance this one and that one.
Don't know, but I would guess that there could be a small penalty.
The biggest difficulty I see is trying to get all the functionalities that Access gives you and re-creating some of these in Excel.
Yes, you can have multiple Excel users and a single Access database.
Here again, using Access as a front-end and keeping the data in a linked Access database on your network would make more sense and it's easy as pie, there's even a wizard in Access to help you do that: it's just 1 click away.
Really, as most other people have said, take a tiny bit of time to get acquainted with Access, it will save you a lot of time and trouble.
You may know Excel better but if you've gone 80% of the way already if you know VBA and are familiar with the Office object model.
Other advantages of doing it in Access: the Access 2007 runtime is free, meaning that if you were to deploy to app to 1 or 30 PC it would cost you the same: nothing.
You only need one full version of Access for your development work (the Runtime doesn't have the designers).
It really depends on the application. For a normal project, I would recommend using only Access, but sometimes, the needs are specific and an Excel spreadsheet might be more appropriate.
For instance, in a project I had to develop for a former employer, the need was to give access to different persons on forms(pre-filled with some data, different for each person) and have them complete them, then re-import the data.
Since the form was using heavy number crunching, it made more sense to build it in Excel.
The Excel workbooks for the different persons were built from a template using VBA, then saved in a proper location, with the access rights on the folder.
All workbooks were attached as External tables to the workbooks, using named ranges. I could then query the workbooks from the Access Application. All administrative stuff was made from the db, but the end users only had access to their respective workbook.
Developping an Excel/Access application this way was a pleasant experience and the UI was more user-friendly than it would have been using Access.
I have to say that in this case, it would have taken a lot more time doing it in Access than it took using Excel. Also, the Application Object Model seems better though in Excel than in Access.
If you plan to use Excel as a front-end, do not forget to lock all the cells, but the editable ones and don't be affraid to use masked rows and columnns (to construct output tables for the access database, to perform intermediate calculations, etc).
You should also turn off autocalculation while importing data.
It's quite easy and efficient to use Excel as a reporting tool for Access data.
A quick "non programming" approach is to set a List or a Pivot Table, linked to your External Data source. But that's out of scope for Stackoverflow.
A programmatic approach can be very simple:
strProv = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" & SourceFile & ";"
Set cnn = New ADODB.Connection
cnn.Open strProv
Set rst = New ADODB.Recordset
rst.Open strSql, cnn
myDestRange.CopyFromRecordset rst
That's it !
Given the ease of use of Access, I don't see a compelling reason to use Excel at all other than to export data for number crunching. Access is designed to easily build data forms and, in my opinion, will be orders of magnitude easier and less time-consuming than using Excel. A few hours to learn the Access object model will pay for itself many times over in terms of time and effort.
I did it in one project of mine. I used MDB to store the data about bills and used Excel to render them, giving the user the possibility to adapt it.
In this case the best solution is:
Not to use any ADO/DAO in Excel. I implemented everything as public functions in MDB modules and called them directly from Excel. You can return even complex data objects, like arrays of strings etc by calling MDB functions with necessary arguments. This is similar to client/server architecture of modern web applications: you web application just does the rendering and user interaction, database and middle tier is then on the server side.
Use Excel forms for user interaction and for data visualisation.
I usually have a very last sheet with some names regions for settings: the path to MDB files, some settings (current user, password if needed etc.) -- so you can easily adapt your Excel implementation to different location of you "back-end" data.
To connect Excel to Access using VBA is very useful I use it in my profession everyday. The connection string I use is according to the program found in the link below. The program can be automated to do multiple connections or tasks in on shot but the basic connection code looks the same. Good luck!
http://vbaexcel.eu/vba-macro-code/database-connection-retrieve-data-from-database-querying-data-into-excel-using-vba-dao
It Depends how much functionality you are expecting by Excel<->Acess solution. In many cases where you don't have budget to get a complete application solution, these little utilities does work. If the Scope of project is limited then I would go for this solution, because excel does give you flexibility to design spreadsheets as in accordance to your needs and then you may use those predesigned sheets for users to use. Designing a spreadsheet like form in Access is more time consuming and difficult and does requires some ActiveX. It object might not only handling data but presenting in spreadsheet like formates then this solution should works with limited scope.
You could try something like XLLoop. This lets you implement excel functions (UDFs) on an external server (server implementations in many different languages are provided).
For example you could use a MySQL database and Apache web server and then write the functions in PHP to serve up the data to your users.
BTW, I work on the project so let me know if you have any questions.