Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 33: Getting Data from External Database Files

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Importing Access Tables

Microsoft Access is included with some versions of Office 2010. An Access database contains one

or more tables of data, and you can import an Access table directly into a worksheet by choosing

Data ➪ Get External Data ➪ From Access. When you choose this command, Excel displays the

Select Data Source dialog box, which you use to locate the Access file.

After you locate the Access database file, Excel displays the Select Table dialog box, from which

you select the table (or view) to import. Figure 33.1 shows the tables and views available for the

Microsoft Northwind Traders database, which is a sample Access database that you can download

from the Microsoft Web site. Select the table that contains the data you need, click OK, and Excel

displays its Import Data dialog box, shown in Figure 33.2. Use this dialog box to specify the loca-

tion and whether you want a normal table or a pivot table. See Chapter 34 for information about

pivot tables.

FIGURE 33.1

Selecting an Access table to import.

Note
Importing an Access table in this manner is all or none. You’re not given an opportunity to query the database
for specific records. n

Figure 33.3 shows part of the Customers table from the Northwind Traders database. Excel con-

verts the data to a table. You can use all of Excel’s tools to work with the data. Note, however, that

you cannot make changes and send the changed data back to the Access database.