SUMMARY
You can use SQL server stored procedures by accessing the Microsoft
Excel SQLRequest command (included in the Xlodbc.xla add-in).
When you use the reserved SQL command CALL, the SQLRequest command will
execute a stored procedure and return any results of the SQL procedure back
to Microsoft Excel as an array, assuming the variable connection contains a
valid Data Source's connection string. The data source connection should be
set up through the ODBC driver in Microsoft Windows Control Panel.
Macro Example
The following Visual Basic example would run a stored procedure called
sp_helpsql with an argument of ALTER DATABASE. The results of the procedure
will be displayed as an array within a message box.
Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic for Applications procedures for
illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including,
but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness
for a particular purpose. The Visual Basic procedures in this article are
provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that they can be used in
all situations. While Microsoft support professionals can help explain the
functionality of a particular macro, they will not modify these examples to
provide added functionality, nor will they help you construct macros to
meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you
may want to consult one of the Microsoft Solution Providers. Solution
Providers offer a wide range of fee-based services, including creating
custom macros. For more information about Microsoft Solution Providers,
call Microsoft Customer Information Service at (800) 426-9400.
Sub sp_RunSQLProcedure()
Dim stored_proc As String
Dim connection As String
Dim Results
Dim proc$
Dim x As Integer
'Setup to call SQL stored procedure
'The sp_helpsql procedure returns information on
'a specific Transact-SQL statements
stored_proc = "{Call sp_helpsql('alter database')}"
'Notice the opening and closing braces that are the first
'and last characters of our string.
'These are required for the stored procedure to work properly
'By making connection blank, we'll get prompted for
'our datasource
connection = ""
'Execute the stored procedure and return the array Results,
'which contains the output of our stored procedure
Results = SQLRequest(connection, stored_proc, , 1)
'Build a string we can display from our array
proc$ = ""
For x = 1 To UBound(Results, 1)
'Ubound returns the number of elements (or lines)
'returned by the stored procedure
proc$ = proc$ & Results(x, 1) & Chr$(10)
Next x
'Display results of our stored procedure
MsgBox proc$
End Sub