SQL Server export to Excel with OPENROWSET

Question

I am successfully exporting to excel with the following statement:

insert into OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
'Excel 8.0;Database=C:\template.xls;', 
'SELECT * FROM [SheetName$]') 
select * from myTable

Is there any standard way to use this template specifying a new name for the excel sheet so that the template never gets written to or do I have to come up with some work-around?

What's the best way to do this in people experience?

Cymophane

Oh lucky man. I've been already spending 2 hours trying to run this and getting all kind of errors. (using 2008SP2) – Arron

Answer 1

You'd have to use dynamic SQL. OPENROWSET etc only allows literals as parameters.

DECLARE @myfile varchar(800)

SET @myfile = 'C:\template.xls'

EXEC ('
insert into OPENROWSET(''Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0'', 
''Excel 8.0;Database=' + @myfile + ';'', 
''SELECT * FROM [SheetName$]'') 
select * from myTable
')

Remember: the path is relative to where SQL Server is running

Vries

this is good - but I'd still have to put the template there in the first place so I cannot come up with names in the SQL, I'd have to programmatically create the spreadsheet first. – Cymophane

Ah I get you. No, you can't manipulate Excel that way in T-SQL. Perhaps a CLR stored proc? – Vries

never worked with CLR SPs - but I guess it's easy enough - any good sample to get me going? – Cymophane

Sorry... not used them. The "SQLCLR" tag has 31 related questions. – Vries

I'll clarify.. our corporate build from DB engineering says no – Vries

I'm following the same but getting this error "The OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.12.0" has not been registered." I have tried to change the OLEDB version also. – Incapacity

Answer 2

Couldn't you make a copy of your template first, then pass the copy's filename into OPENROWSET?

Snub

Answer 3

You can use a template in one location and the data file in other location. When you run the script , it will delete the old file and generates a new data file.

 EXEC xp_cmdshell 'del D:\template.xls'
 EXEC xp_cmdshell 'copy C:\template.xls D:\template.xls'

 INSERT INTO OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
 'Excel 8.0;Database=D:\template.xls;', 
 'SELECT * FROM [SheetName$]') 
  SELECT * FROM myTable

Gourd