Excel vlookup incorporating SQL table

Question

I have an Excel spreadsheet which I use to calculate the cost of a product we sell, (happens to be car insurance). This product is calculated based on various pieces of inf

Answer 1

Good news is you can do this without VBA, quite a few steps though as follows:

1 . First add a new sheet, call this something meaningful like PoscodeLookup.

2 . Next go to Data and select Other Sources and Microsoft Query:

3 . Next select (or create) an ODBC data source that can connect you to your database asd select this (you may need to enter user/pass).

4 . The query designer will ask you to select a table, just click close.

5 . Next select the SQL button:

6 . Now enter the SQL query to get the single value you need, using an example postcode eg:

SELECT TOP 1 [Value] FROM [MyTable] WHERE [Postcode] = 'AB12 1AA';

7 . Now hit OK and OK which should return a single value in the window.

8 . Click on Return data in the toolbar:

9 . Now back in Excel hit properties in the prompt:

10 . Now change the post code you entered into a ? in the definition tab:

11 . Hit OK and OK again and it will prompt for a value, enter a valid postcode and hit enter, this should now give you the value you want in cell A1.

12 . Now click in the cell A1 and go to Data > Properties then Connection properties:

13 . Now in the definition tab you have a Parameters button at the bottom, in here you can fill out as below:

Note, the target cell is the cell where you enter the postcode, tick the refresh box if you want this to re-run the query when the post code changes.

That should be it, let me know if it doesn't work.

Answer 2

You can. In the VBA of the sheet, create a function like so:

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)

and in it's body

• Check the Target is the cell you want to base your lookup on (G1)
• If it is, get the data from the DB and put it where it needs to go

Cheers -