SQL.REQUEST Excel function Alternative? Create one with VBA?

Question

I am looking to execute SQL SELECT statement inside a single cell in Excel, using other cells as inputs to the SELECT statement. After some searching, I found that the sql.request function would have done exactly what I'm looking for. However, that function was deprecated in after 2002, and I'm running Excel 2007 and 2010 here at work. Citation

I have tried to create a Macro / VBA script that does the same thing, but haven't been able to get very far with it. I do all my programming in LabVIEW, Mathematica, and SQL; I have no idea what's going on in VBA. This is what I've managed to come up with:

Sub Test2()

' Declare the QueryTable object. I'm not actually sure why this line is here...
Dim qt As QueryTable

' Set up the SQL Statement
sqlstring = "SELECT `Substrate ID` FROM temp_table WHERE `id`=" & Range("A1").Value

' Set up the connection string, reference an ODBC connection
connstring = "ODBC;DSN=OWT_x64;"

' Now implement the connection, run the query, and add
' the results to the spreadsheet
With ActiveSheet.QueryTables.Add(Connection:=connstring, Destination:=Range("A22"), Sql:=sqlstring)
    .Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
End With

End Sub

There are three primary issues with the above code:

This code returns the column ID ("Substrate ID") in cell A22, and the result of the SQL query in cell A23. I only want the result, and I only want it in cell A22. All queries are forced to return only 1 row and 1 column.
I don't know how to make it so that the output cell, A22, is whatever cell is active when the script is run. Also, the input cell, A1, should be the cell directly to the left (column-1) of the active cell.
I don't know how to turn this into an Excel function

=sql.request(connection_string,[output_ref],[driver_prompt],[query_text],[col_names_logical])

which is my final goal. This way, I can give this code to others at my company and they can easily use it.

The connection is a ODBC connection to a MySQL 5.6 database. The query is pretty simple, and along the lines of:

SELECT column FROM table WHERE id=excel_cell_value

as you can see from the VBA code that I have.

Currently, I run a query in a different Excel worksheet that returns all rows of the "id" and "Substrate ID" columns and then run VLOOKUP to find the item of interest. This is starting to become an issue, as our database size is growing quite fast.

So, I ask:

How can I get rid of the column ID in the result?
How can I turn this into a custom excel function? I've looked at Office.com and it doesn't seem too difficult, but I need a working script first.
-OR- Has anyone already made a custom function that they're willing to share?

Thanks!

EDIT: Managed to get something working thanks to Tim's link.

Function SQLQuery(sqlString As String, connString As String, Optional TimeOut As Integer) As String

SQLQuery = Error 'Assume an error happened

Dim conn As ADODB.Connection
Dim record As ADODB.Recordset

Set conn = New ADODB.Connection
conn.ConnectionString = connString
conn.Open
Set record = New ADODB.Recordset

If TimeOut > 0 Then
    conn.CommandTimeout = TimeOut
End If

record.Open sqlString, conn

Dim cols As Long
Dim i As Long

cols = record.Fields.Count   'Count how many columns were returned
If Not record.EOF Then   'Put results into comma-delimited string
    record.MoveFirst
    s = ""
    If Not record.EOF Then
        For i = 0 To cols - 1
            s = s & IIf(i > 0, ",", "") & record(i)
        Next i
    End If
End If

SQLQuery = s

End Function

However, it's quite slow. Any ideas on how to speed it up?

itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/beyond-excel/… Shows how to use ADO to create a user-defined function (UDF) in Excel — Tim Williams
– Tim Williams, Commented May 4, 2012 at 2:22
I've managed to get something working, thanks to the link that Tim provided. (See edit) However, it's quite slow when being run on multiple cells. Anyone know how to fix that? — dthor
– dthor, Commented May 4, 2012 at 17:18
A UDF which runs one cell at a time will never be as fast as running the query via a sub which updates all the cells at once: you're creating, opening and closing a connection every time the UDF recalculates (which could be more than once per sheet/workbook recalculation). You could try caching the connection (and the connection string) in static variables within the function, so if the next call is using the same connection string, you don't have to make a new connection. Never tried that myself though. — Tim Williams
– Tim Williams, Commented May 4, 2012 at 18:51

Tim Williams · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-04 20:27:15Z

Here's a quick test of caching the connection. On a test worksheet with 100 lookups it reduced calculation time from about 18 sec to about 0.5 sec

Remember though it will keep a connection open until you close Excel (or the VB environment gets reset).

If you want to test the difference in your environment, you can comment out the marked line (don't forget to also press the "stop" button in the VBE to clear the static variables).

Function SQLQuery(sqlString As String, connString As String, _
                                  Optional TimeOut As Integer) As String

    Static cs As String
    Static conn As ADODB.Connection

    SQLQuery = Error 'Assume an error happened
    Dim s

    If conn Is Nothing Or connString <> cs Then
        Set conn = New ADODB.Connection
        conn.ConnectionString = connString
        conn.Open
        If TimeOut > 0 Then conn.CommandTimeout = TimeOut
        cs = connString '###comment this out to disable caching effect
    End If

    Dim record As New ADODB.Recordset

    record.Open sqlString, conn

    Dim cols As Long
    Dim i As Long

    cols = record.Fields.Count   'Count how many columns were returned
    If Not record.EOF Then   'Put results into comma-delimited string
        record.MoveFirst
        s = ""
        If Not record.EOF Then
            For i = 0 To cols - 1
                s = s & IIf(i > 0, ",", "") & record(i)
            Next i
        End If
    End If

    SQLQuery = s

End Function

Ah, now that is wonderful! This is definitely much more usable. Thanks Tim!

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