Excel VBA Introduction Part 56.7 - Stored Procedures and Parameters with ADO

Introduction

This tutorial will guide you through the process of calling and passing values to stored procedures from a SQL Server database using ADO commands in Excel VBA. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to reference parameters by name, pass values, retrieve result sets using a recordset object, and extract information using output parameters.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Environment

Before you begin coding, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

• Excel: Open Excel and ensure you have the Developer tab enabled.
• VBA Editor: Access the VBA editor by pressing ALT + F11.
• References: To use ADO, add a reference:
  • In the VBA editor, go to Tools > References.
  • Look for Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects x.x Library and check it.

Step 2: Writing the VBA Code to Connect to SQL Server

To connect to your SQL Server database, you'll need to create a connection string and open a connection. Here's how to do it:

1. Declare Variables:

   Dim conn As Object
   Dim cmd As Object
   Dim rs As Object
   

2. Create Connection and Command Objects:

   Set conn = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
   Set cmd = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
   Set rs = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
   

3. Open the Connection: Replace YourConnectionString with your actual connection string.

   conn.Open "YourConnectionString"
   

4. Set Command Properties:

   With cmd
       .ActiveConnection = conn
       .CommandType = adCmdStoredProc
       .CommandText = "YourStoredProcedureName"
   End With
   

Step 3: Passing Parameters to Stored Procedures

To pass parameters to your stored procedure, follow these steps:

1. Add Parameters: Use the Parameters collection of the command object to add parameters.

   cmd.Parameters.Append cmd.CreateParameter("ParameterName", adVarChar, adParamInput, 50, "YourValue")
   

2. Execute the Command: You can execute the command and retrieve results by:

   Set rs = cmd.Execute
   

Step 4: Retrieving Data from the Recordset

Once you execute the command, you can retrieve data from the recordset. Here’s how:

1. Loop Through Recordset:

   Do While Not rs.EOF
       Debug.Print rs.Fields("FieldName").Value
       rs.MoveNext
   Loop
   

Step 5: Using Output Parameters

If your stored procedure has output parameters, you can retrieve them as follows:

1. Declare an Output Parameter:

   cmd.Parameters.Append cmd.CreateParameter("OutputParamName", adInteger, adParamOutput)
   

2. After Execution, Access the Output Parameter:

   Dim outputValue As Integer
   outputValue = cmd.Parameters("OutputParamName").Value
   Debug.Print "Output Value: " & outputValue
   

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to use Excel VBA to call stored procedures from a SQL Server database using ADO. You practiced setting up a connection, passing parameters, executing commands, retrieving data from a recordset, and handling output parameters.

As next steps, consider experimenting with different types of stored procedures and parameters, or integrating this approach into larger Excel applications for advanced data management.