Access Live Data in Excel-2 ~ LEARN MS-ACCESS TIPS AND TRICKS

Continued from last week's post:

This is a continuation of the earlier post Access Live Data in Excel. Please refer to the earlier article before continuing.

If you want to make changes to the Query that you have created for bringing Access Data into Excel, you may do so.

Click on a cell within the Data Area on the Worksheet.
Point to Import External Data (Get External Data in MS-Office 2000) in the Data Menu.
Select Edit Query from the displayed menu. The Wizard will guide you through the earlier selections, and you can modify them before saving the Query.

Microsoft Query.

Alternatively, you can open the Microsoft Query Program (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\MSQRY32.EXE in MS-Access 2003) and open the saved Query (Refer earlier Post Access Live Data in Excel for Query File's default location) from the File Menu, edit the SQL String, and view the Output data in the Query Editor before saving the changes.

When you open the Query that you have created and saved earlier, the Source Data will be displayed in Datasheet View. Click on the SQL-labeled Toolbar Button or select SQL from the View menu.

You will find the SQL String like the sample given below:

SELECT Categories.CategoryID,
 Categories.CategoryName,
 Categories.Description,
 Categories.Picture
FROM `C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\samples\Northwind`.Categories Categories

The normal SQL terminator character semicolon (;) is not present. The FROM Clause in the SQL is written differently without the use of an IN Clause, which we have seen in the MS-Access Query to Open Excel or dBase Tables directly using the Source Connect Str Property. The Categories Table Name is attached to the sample Database Path Name with a dot separator, and the Table Name is repeated with a space in between. The .mdb file extension for Northwind is also omitted from the database file name specification.

If you copy and paste the above SQL String into an MS Access Query and change it to Datasheet View, it will display the data correctly. No errors will be displayed, except some Column headings may appear as Expr3, Expr4, and so on, if you have changed the Query in Design View first and then switched into Datasheet View.

Properties of Microsoft Query

This is the time to learn the usage of two more Properties of MS-Access Query.

Copy the above SQL String into a new MS-Access Query SQL window.
Select View -> Datasheet View to display Records from the Categories Table from the Northwind.mdb database.
Select View -> Design View to change the Query Design View.
The Table Object has already been visible on the Query Design surface, but the Field Names are absent. Click on the title area of the Table to select it.
Display the Property Sheet (View -> Properties. The Alias and Source Properties of the Query are displayed.
The Table Name Categories are loaded in the Alias Property, and the Path Name of the NorthWind database appears in the Source Property without the .mdb extension.
Change the Table Name appearing in the Alias Property to a different name, say myCategories.
Add .mdb extension at the end of the Pathname string in the Source Property.

The Table Name now appears as myCategories in the Title of the Table. Turn the Query into an SQL View. You can see that at the end of the SQL String, the reference to the Table name, Categories (which appeared twice earlier), has now changed to myCategories.

We must qualify each data field with the Table Name myCategories due to the Alias Name change. Change the SQL String as shown below to qualify each Field with the Alias Name. Enclose the Database Path Name in Square Brackets ([]) in place of the single quotes.

SELECT [myCategories].[CategoryID],
 [myCategories].[CategoryName],
 [myCategories].Description,
 [myCategories].Picture
FROM [d:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\samples\Northwind.mdb].Categories AS myCategories;

The manual change is necessary because we are referencing an external data source, and no way MS-Access can guess the name. If we are using a Table from within the Database or from a linked Table, then the Alias Name change will automatically take effect in all the fields. You can try this experiment with one of your own Tables from within the Database or with a linked Table.

Note: The Source Database and Source Connect Str Property Values are taken into the Query Syntax with an IN Clause to identify the external Application.

Alias Property is initially set with the Table Name and accepts changes to the Table Name through this Property.

Source Property accepts the external Database reference, either a direct Path Name or an ODBC Connection String, and the SQL Syntax is different in the FROM Clause of the Query definition.