HOWTO: Convert a Database Table into an Excel Spreadsheet

• Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 4.0, 5.0, 6.0
• Microsoft Excel 2000
• Microsoft Office 2000 Developer
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

This article contains a code example that demonstrates how to convert a database table into an Excel spreadsheet by using data access objects and OLE automation.

MORE INFORMATION

The program below demonstrates how easy it is to create a flexible and powerful program by integrating OLE automation with the data access objects in Visual Basic for Windows. Specifically, the program provides a method for converting a table that exists in a Microsoft Access database into a Microsoft Excel version 5.0 and above spreadsheet.

To do this, you'll need an Excel Spreadsheet object to receive the data from the table. This example uses OLE automation, so you'll need Excel version 5.0 or above. The program creates a Recordset object of type snapshot from the table you want to convert. The example uses the Titles table from the BIBLIO.MDB database: the sample database that comes with Visual Basic versions 4.0 and 5.0. After creating the snapshot, the program uses a user-defined CopyFromRecordset method to fill a variant array from the Recordset and uses this array to relay rows to Excel.

Steps to Create Example Program

1. Create a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.



2. Add a CommandButton (Command1) and label (Label1) to Form1.



3. Reference both the "Microsoft Excel Object Library" and the "Microsoft DAO Object Library."



4. Place the following code in the General Declarations section of the form:




      ' User defined type to help determine the
      ' starting cell in the range receiving the recordset
      Private Type ExlCell
        row As Long
        col As Long
      End Type

      Private Sub CopyRecords(rs As Recordset, ws As Worksheet, _
       StartingCell As ExlCell)
        Dim SomeArray() As Variant
        Dim row As Long, col As Long
        Dim fd As Field

        ' You might want to check if rs is not empty
        rs.MoveLast
        ReDim SomeArray(rs.RecordCount + 1, rs.Fields.Count)
        ' Copy column headers to array
        col = 0
        For Each fd In rs.Fields
           SomeArray(0, col) = fd.Name
           col = col + 1
        Next
        ' Copy rs to some array
        rs.MoveFirst
        For row = 1 To rs.RecordCount - 1
            For col = 0 To rs.Fields.Count - 1
                SomeArray(row, col) = rs.Fields(col).Value
                ' Excel will be offended if you try setting one
                ' of its cells to a NULL
                If IsNull(SomeArray(row, col)) Then _
                 SomeArray(row, col) = ""
            Next
            rs.MoveNext
        Next
        ' The range should have the same number of
        ' rows and cols as in the recordset
        ws.Range(ws.Cells(StartingCell.row, StartingCell.col), _
         ws.Cells(StartingCell.row + rs.RecordCount + 1, _
         StartingCell.col + rs.Fields.Count)).Value = SomeArray

      End Sub

      Sub Form_Load()
        Label1.AutoSize = True
        Label1.Caption = "Ready"
        Label1.Refresh
      End Sub

      Sub Command1_Click()
        Dim oExcel as Object
        Dim objExlSht As Object           ' OLE automation object
        Dim stCell As ExlCell
        Dim db As Database         ' Database object
        Dim Sn As Recordset         ' Recordset to hold records

        MousePointer = vbHourglass   ' Change mousepointer
        Label1.Caption = "Creating Excel Object"
        Label1.Refresh
        Set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
        oExcel.WorkBooks.Add
        Set objExlSht = oExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(1)
        ' Open the database:
        Label1.Caption = "Opening the database"
        Label1.Refresh
        Set db = OpenDatabase("BIBLIO.MDB")
        ' Set up Field names as Column names:
        Label1.Caption = "Creating SnapShot"
        Label1.Refresh
        Set Sn = db.OpenRecordset("Titles", dbOpenSnapshot)
        ' Start fill range at A1
        stCell.row = 1
        stCell.col = 1

        ' Place the fields across the top of the spreadsheet:
        Label1.Caption = "Adding field names to Spreadsheet"
        Label1.Refresh
        CopyRecords Sn, objExlSht, stCell
        ' Save the spreadsheet:
        Label1.Caption = "Saving Spreadsheet"
        Label1.Refresh
        objExlSht.SaveAs "C:\TITLES.XLS"
        ' Quit the excel object - removes Excel from memory!
        Label1.Caption = "Quitting Excel"
        Label1.Refresh
        objExlSht.Application.Quit
        ' Clean up:
        Label1.Caption = "Cleaning up"
        Label1.Refresh
        Set objExlSht = Nothing         ' Remove object variable.
        Set oExcel = Nothing            ' Remove object variable.
        Set Sn = Nothing         ' Remove snapshot object.
        Set db = Nothing         ' Remove database object.
        MousePointer = vbDefault  ' Restore mouse pointer.
        Label1.Caption = "Ready"
        Label1.Refresh
      End Sub 

5. Press the F5 key to run the program. When you click the CommandButton, the data in the Titles table will be imported into an Excel spreadsheet. The label will update you on its progress.

Additional query words: Excel CopyFromRecordSet

Keywords          : kbinterop kbAutomation kbVBp kbVBp400 kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbGrpDSO kbOffice2000 kbexcel2000 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000,4.0,5.0,6.0,97; :
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto 

Last Reviewed: June 3, 1999