ACC: How to Use DAO to Link an Excel Spreadsheet

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1. Start Microsoft Excel.
2. On Sheet1 of a new workbook, type the following in cells A1:C3:

         A1: First   B1: Last    C1: Middle.
         A2: Adam    B2: Smith   C2: A.
         A3: Bob     B3: Jones   C3: B.
   					

3. Save the workbook as LinkTest.xls in the folder My Documents.
4. Close the workbook and quit Microsoft Excel.
5. Start Microsoft Access and create a new database.
6. Create a new module and type the following procedure in it:

         Sub XLLink(strNewAccTable as string, strXLFileName as String, _
              strImportSheet as String)
   
            ' Variables:
            '   strNewAccTable - the name of your new linked table.
            '   strXLFileName - the path and name of your Excel file. This
            '                   should be in the form "C:\MyDir\MyFile.xls."
            '   strImportSheet - the name of the sheet you want to link.
            ' All these variable are strings, and should be supplied to the
            ' subroutine enclosed in quotation marks.
   
            On Error GoTo XLError
   
            Dim db As DATABASE
            Dim td As TableDef
   
            Set db = CurrentDb
   
            ' Create a new TableDef using the passed name.
            Set td = db.CreateTableDef(strNewAccTable)
   
            ' Set the ConnectString property to the Excel file to link.
            ' In Microsoft Access 7.0, the ConnectString needs to reflect the
            ' version of Excel. Remove the apostrophe from the Excel 5.0
            ' line and comment out the Excel 8.0 line when working with
            ' Excel 5.0/95.
            ' td.Connect = "Excel 5.0;DATABASE=" & strXLFileName & ";"
            td.Connect = "Excel 8.0;DATABASE=" & strXLFileName & ";"
            td.SourceTableName = strImportSheet & "$"
   
            ' Append the new TableDef to the TableDefs collection.
            db.TableDefs.Append td
   
         Exit_XLLink:
            Exit Sub
   
         XLError:
            MsgBox Err.Number & " " & Err.Description
            Resume Exit_XLLink
   
         End Sub
   					

7. On the Debug menu, click Compile Loaded Modules.
8. On the Tools menu, click Debug Window.
9. In the Debug window, type:

   XLLink "New Link", "C:\My Documents\LinkTest.xls", "Sheet1"