Excel function to make SQL-like queries on worksheet data?

Question

I have a largish table in an Excel worksheet:

Column_1 | Column_2 | Column_3

ValueA       ValueB     ValueC
....

What I need is a function that will take as input the range and an SQL-like query String and return a range of rows that match the query, e.g.:

=SQL_SELECT(A1:C1000, "SELECT * WHERE Column_1 = ValueH AND Column_3 = blah")

Does something like this exist? Or what would be the best way to implement myself?

Answer 1

You can use Get External Data (dispite its name), located in the 'Data' tab of Excel 2010, to set up a connection in a workbook to query data from itself. Use From Other Sources From Microsoft Query to connect to Excel

Once set up you can use VBA to manipulate the connection to, among other thing, view and modify the SQL command that drives the query. This query does reference the in memory workbook, so doen't require a save to refresh the latest data.

Here's a quick Sub to demonstrate accessing the connection objects

Sub DemoConnection()
    Dim c As Connections
    Dim wb As Workbook
    Dim i As Long
    Dim strSQL As String

    Set wb = ActiveWorkbook
    Set c = wb.Connections
    For i = 1 To c.Count
        ' Reresh the data
        c(i).Refresh 
        ' view the SQL query
        strSQL = c(i).ODBCConnection.CommandText
        MsgBox strSQL
    Next
End Sub