February 9, 2010 9:23 PM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vbaLast post showed the Fields Table column holding Excel Formulas to embed into your database result sets. We also talked about how to enter formulas that reference database fields. This is truly powerful stuff that turns basic data extracts into analytical information. So let's start adding...
February 6, 2010 5:37 PM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vbaIt's great that we can download and display data in Excel where users can sort it, filter it, print it... whatever they want to it. It's great that we can summarize that data in interactive pivot tables. It's great that we can display those pivot tables in interactive charts. Those of you...
February 2, 2010 5:57 PM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vbaSometimes we want to include large fields in our results but don't want them hogging screen realestate. We can limit those results using the "Width" colum in our Fields Table (See below). If you couple this with the Format "W" (Wrap), you can display comments and notes...
January 25, 2010 6:06 PM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vbaNow it's time to add basic formatting. Formatting is important. Accountants must see currency values formatted their special way. Dates must be presented according to regional standards. Fortunately, adding formatting to your results is as easy as adding one more column to our...
January 21, 2010 5:58 PM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vbaAnother common requirement for reports is sorting. While this can be done in SQL with an ORDER BY clause, I like to use Excel to sort because the desktop PC usually has a much higer CPU-Power-to-Number-of-Users ratio than a database server. Today, we add sort columns to the...
January 18, 2010 6:15 PM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vba
When retrieving large amounts of data, we need to preserve displaying column headers and key values. Key values should be on the left of your extract. With that in mind, today we add column "Freeze" to our Fields Table.
[caption id="attachment_470"...
January 14, 2010 6:02 PM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vbaIn the last post we linked the Fields Table to some code that translated the table into an SQL Select clause. Most often, that's enough. But sometimes we need to manipulate the data before loading it into our result spreadsheet. We can do that by adding
January 9, 2010 12:04 PM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vbaIn my last post I provided some simple tools to manage Excel tables. This was in preparation for creating and incorporating a "Fields Table" into our reporting system. The advantages of the Fields table are enumerated in the prior posts. So lets start using it.
The first portion of our...
December 31, 2009 9:08 AM
Posted by: Craig Hatmaker
database,
development,
excel,
Microsoft Excel,
ms query,
odbc,
sql,
tutorial,
vbaI hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a great new year. My heart goes out to the drivers and office workers of Arrow Trucking. ABC News reported on...