Function Similar to importxml in Excel?

Question

I love using Google Docs function =importxml() but would love to know if there was anything like it in Excel 2010? I cant seem to find a way for the program to automatically pull data from a linked XML file.

For example, I would love to be able to set up a column with the header "Item Name", then have the next column append the user-entered item name in the previous column to this url

http://util.eveuniversity.org/xml/itemLookup.php?name=

and then parse the resulting XML file to return the type ID. This is accomplished in google docs using

=importxml(concatenate("http://util.eveuniversity.org/xml/itemLookup.php?name=",A3);"//itemLookup/typeID")

A3 is the column that has the item name, which in this case would be Tritanium, and imports the data form the resulting XML file

http://util.eveuniversity.org/xml/itemLookup.php?name=Tritanium

which returns the value 34.

I have a list of about 20 item names that google docs automatically updates the item ID on every time I open the file. Is there any way for Excel 2010 to replicate this function?

Thanks!

Will

Answer 1

You will need to write your own UDF.

One way would be to use the MSXML2 library, something like this:

Function GetData(sName As String, sItem As String, Optional sURL = "") As Variant
    Dim oHttp As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60
    Dim xmlResp As MSXML2.DOMDocument60
    Dim result As Variant
    On Error GoTo EH

    If sURL = "" Then
        sURL = "http://util.eveuniversity.org/xml/itemLookup.php?name="
    End If

    'open the request and send it
    oHttp.Open "GET", sURL & sName, False
    oHttp.Send

    'get the response as xml
    Set xmlResp = oHttp.responseXML
    ' get Item
    GetData = xmlResp.getElementsByTagName(sItem).Item(0).Text

    ' Examine output of these in the Immediate window
    Debug.Print sName
    Debug.Print xmlResp.XML

CleanUp:
    On Error Resume Next
    Set xmlResp = Nothing
    Set oHttp = Nothing
Exit Function
EH:
    GetData = CVErr(xlErrValue)
    GoTo CleanUp
End Function

Call it like this (where A5 contains the required typeName)

=GetData(A5, "typeID")

Answer 2

Question is from 2013, some time has passed...

With Excel 2013, there is a function WEBSERVICE to load XML documents, that would do exactly what you want.

There is also FILTERXML to search loaded XML document using XPath.

Answer 3

Function ImportXML(url As String, query As String)

    Dim document    As MSXML2.DOMDocument60
    Dim http        As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60

    http.Open "GET", url, False
    http.send

    Set document = http.responseXML

    ImportXML = document.SelectSingleNode(query).nodeTypedValue

End Function

Answer 4

The 'From Web' function on the Data menu will pull online data directly into spreadsheet. XML data import is also available under the From Other Sources sub-menu, also listed on the data menu.

Created connections are managed via the Connections dialogue box on the Data menu.

Sample code using record macros while creating a 'From Web' connection:

Sub Macro1()
' Macro1 Macro
With ActiveSheet.QueryTables.Add(Connection:= _
        "URL;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel" _
        , Destination:=Range("$A$1"))
        .Name = _
        "?affID=110195&tt=270912_7a_3912_6&babsrc=HP_ss&mntrId=3e2fc48700000000000088532eb428ec"
        .FieldNames = True
        .RowNumbers = False
        .FillAdjacentFormulas = False
        .PreserveFormatting = True
        .RefreshOnFileOpen = False
        .BackgroundQuery = True
        .RefreshStyle = xlInsertDeleteCells
        .SavePassword = False
        .SaveData = True
        .AdjustColumnWidth = True
        .RefreshPeriod = 0
        .WebSelectionType = xlEntirePage
        .WebFormatting = xlWebFormattingNone
        .WebPreFormattedTextToColumns = True
        .WebConsecutiveDelimitersAsOne = True
        .WebSingleBlockTextImport = False
        .WebDisableDateRecognition = False
        .WebDisableRedirections = False
        .Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
    End With
End Sub