Excel 2007 Linked Server

Lets see How to create a linked server with Excel 2007. Well most of the stuff you'll find on the net on how to create a linked Server is using Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider which is no longer able to connect to Excel 2007.

So here you go...
We will use "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0" which come with Office 2007 pack. If you don't have it on Provider's list you can download it from 2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components

After downloading and Installing the ACE driver you can create the Linked server as

exec sp_addLinkedServer
@server= 'XLFile',
@srvproduct = 'ACE 12.0',
@provider = 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0',
@datasrc = 'E:\Mangal.xls',
@provstr = 'Excel 12.0; HDR=No'

If you have the Column names in Excel do HDR=yes.

Now you can query your Excel just like any table - SELECT * FROM XLFile...[sheet1$]

Or if you don't want to create a Linked Server, and just want to execute the Excel then do -
SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET ( 'Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0', 'Excel 12.0; Database=E:\Mangal.xls;HDR=No', 'Select * from [Sheet1$]' )
And if you execute the above query and you get the error
Msg 15281, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 SQL Server blocked access to STATEMENT 'OpenRowset/OpenDatasource' of component 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries' because this component is turned off. That means first you need to enable the 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries'.

For that first execute the following scripts. 
sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE WITH OverRide
GO
sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE WITH OverRide
GO
For Creating Linked Server from Management Studio:
Open the Management studio, connect to your server. And follow the steps
1. Go to "Server Objects" then Right CLick on "Linked Servers" and write "New Linked Server".
2. Give any name to your linked server. In our example I've given "XL".
3. Now select Server Type as "Other Data Source". Now select the provider"Microsoft Office 12.0 Access Database Engine OLE DB Provider."
4. Product Name : ACE 12.0
5. Date Source : E:\Mangal.xls --- Here you need to put the path of your Excel Sheet.
e.g. C:\Folder\New.xls Provider String : Excel 12.0; HDR=No 
Again remember if you have column names in Excel then HDR=Yes. 

- Mangal Pardeshi.

Calculating Running Totals in SQL

 

Edit: If you are using SQL Server 2012 or 2014 you may like to see my latest post on the topic How to Calculate Running Totals in SQL Server

NOTE: After realizing that, SELF JOIN is not efficient way of calculating Running Totals so I added another post on how to Calculate Running Totals using a co-related sub-query.  So instead of using the technique I used in this post you should use technique mentioned in my new post -  How to Calculating Running Totals

In this article I will show you a few different techniques for calculating Running Total on multiple rows. The different scenarios I’ll be covering in this post are -

• Running Total for all records.
• Running Total on each Group of Records.
• Running Total on each Date.

Here is our sample table :

ShipId	OrderId	ShipDate	Quantity
1	1	2009-02-01 12:06:16.820	10
2	1	2009-02-02 16:16:16.820	15
3	2	2009-02-01 13:26:16.820	20
4	2	2009-02-03 17:40:16.820	12
5	2	2009-02-04 13:05:16.820	15
6	3	2009-02-03 14:25:16.820	25
7	3	2009-02-04 15:50:16.820	50
8	3	2009-02-05 19:40:16.820	30
9	4	2009-02-06 15:30:16.820	20
10	4	2009-02-07 16:20:16.820	10
11	5	2009-02-05 17:05:16.820	35

Create Sample Data:

-- Create Table CREATE TABLE Sales ( ShipId INT, OrderId INT, ShipDate DateTime, Quantity INT ) GO -- Load Sample Data INSERT INTO Sales SELECT 1,1, 'Feb 01 2009 12:06:16:820PM',10 UNION ALL SELECT 2,1, 'Feb 02 2009 04:16:16:820PM',15 UNION ALL SELECT 3,2, 'Feb 01 2009 01:26:16:820PM',20 UNION ALL SELECT 4,2, 'Feb 03 2009 02:40:16:820PM',12 UNION ALL SELECT 5,2, 'Feb 04 2009 01:05:16:820PM',15 UNION ALL SELECT 6,3, 'Feb 03 2009 05:25:16:820PM',25 UNION ALL SELECT 7,3, 'Feb 04 2009 03:50:16:820PM',50 UNION ALL SELECT 8,3, 'Feb 05 2009 07:40:16:820PM',30 UNION ALL SELECT 9,4, 'Feb 06 2009 03:30:16:820PM',20 UNION ALL SELECT 10,4, 'Feb 07 2009 04:20:16:820PM',10 UNION ALL SELECT 11,5, 'Feb 05 2009 05:05:16:820PM',35

Case I : Running Total For all records.
Here I will calculate the Running Totals for each records. For that I will JOIN the Sales table with itself. So the query will be :

SELECT A.Shipid, A.Orderid, A.Shipdate, A.Quantity, SUM(B.Quantity) AS RunningTotal FROM Sales A INNER JOIN Sales B ON A.ShipId >= B.ShipId GROUP BY A.Shipid, A.Orderid, A.Shipdate, A.Quantity

Here is the result returned by above query :

ShipId	OrderId	ShipDate	Quantity	RunningTotal
1	1	2009-02-01 12:06:16.820	10	10
2	1	2009-02-02 16:16:16.820	15	25
3	2	2009-02-01 13:26:16.820	20	45
4	2	2009-02-03 17:40:16.820	12	57
5	2	2009-02-04 13:05:16.820	15	72
6	3	2009-02-03 14:25:16.820	25	97
7	3	2009-02-04 15:50:16.820	50	147
8	3	2009-02-05 19:40:16.820	30	177
9	4	2009-02-06 15:30:16.820	20	197
10	4	2009-02-07 16:20:16.820	10	207
11	5	2009-02-05 17:05:16.820	35	242

Case II: Running Total on each Group of Records.

Now instead of calculating the running total for each record we will calculate the running total for each OrderId. For that small change in our above query will be addition of one AND condition in ON clause, that will be - A.OrderId = B.OrderId. So the final query will be :

SELECT A.Shipid, A.Orderid, A.Shipdate, A.Quantity, SUM(B.Quantity) AS RunningTotal FROM Sales A INNER JOIN Sales B ON A.ShipId >= B.ShipId AND A.OrderId = B.OrderId GROUP BY A.Shipid, A.Orderid, A.Shipdate, A.Quantity ORDER BY OrderId

And the Output :

ShipId	OrderId	ShipDate	Quantity	RunningTotal
1	1	2009-02-01 12:06:16.820	10	10
2	1	2009-02-02 16:16:16.820	15	25
3	2	2009-02-01 13:26:16.820	20	20
4	2	2009-02-03 17:40:16.820	12	32
5	2	2009-02-04 13:05:16.820	15	47
6	3	2009-02-03 14:25:16.820	25	25
7	3	2009-02-04 15:50:16.820	50	75
8	3	2009-02-05 19:40:16.820	30	105
9	4	2009-02-06 15:30:16.820	20	20
10	4	2009-02-07 16:20:16.820	10	30
11	5	2009-02-05 17:05:16.820	35	35

Case III: Running Total on each Date.

Now we will see how to calculate the Running Total for each day. For that some small modifications will required in our ON clause, observe them carefully and try to understand what I’m trying to do :

SELECT A.Shipid, A.Orderid, A.Shipdate, A.Quantity, SUM(B.Quantity) AS RunningTotal FROM Sales A INNER JOIN Sales B ON A.shipDate >= B.Shipdate AND DateAdd(dd, DateDiff (dd, 0, A.Shipdate), 0) = DateAdd(dd, DateDiff (dd, 0, B.Shipdate) ,0) GROUP BY A.Shipid, A.Orderid, A.Shipdate, A.Quantity ORDER BY A.ShipDate

And the output :

ShipId	OrderId	ShipDate	Quantity	RunningTotal
1	1	2009-02-01 12:06:16.820	10	10
3	2	2009-02-01 13:26:16.820	20	30
2	1	2009-02-02 16:16:16.820	15	15
6	3	2009-02-03 14:25:16.820	25	25
4	2	2009-02-03 17:40:16.820	12	37
5	2	2009-02-04 13:05:16.820	15	15
7	3	2009-02-04 15:50:16.820	50	65
11	5	2009-02-05 17:05:16.820	35	35
8	3	2009-02-05 19:40:16.820	30	65
9	4	2009-02-06 15:30:16.820	20	20
10	4	2009-02-07 16:20:16.820	10	10

Hopefully these examples will help you understand different methods that can be used to calculate running totals.

- Mangal Pardeshi

RPAD and LPAD Functions in Sql Server

Edit: If you are using SQL Server 2012 or 2014 you may like to see my new post on this topic: LPAD and RPAD Functions in SQL Server

In Sql Server we don’t have RPAD and LPAD functions as they are in Oracle. But it is not that difficult to implement the same thing in Sql Server. With the help of RIGHT and LEFT functions we can achieve that easily. Let’s see how…

First create this table:
CREATE TABLE Temp(Id INT)
GO

Now insert the table Temp with some sample data:
INSERT INTO Temp SELECT
1 UNION SELECT
2 UNION SELECT
12 UNION SELECT
123 UNION SELECT
1234 UNION SELECT
12345
GO

And here is our RPAD and LPAD query

SELECT ID
,RIGHT( '00000' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(5), Id), 5) as LPAD_Example
,LEFT( CONVERT (VARCHAR(5), Id)+'00000' , 5) as RAPD_Example
FROM Temp

--END--

- Mangal Pardeshi

Linked Server Error : Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1

In this post I'll show you a simple solution to a very common error you get while running a query against a linked Server.
You create a Linked Server with Flat Files, Excel or DBF in SQL Server using Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0 and when you try run a query against it you get the error
--Error--
OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server " " returned message "Cannot start your application. The workgroup information file is missing or opened exclusively by another user.".
Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
The OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "" reported an error. Authentication failed.
Msg 7303, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Cannot initialize the data source object of OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "".

Well whatever study I have done on this particular error, I have observed that you will get this error only when try to query from a remote machine. And this is something to do with the Security Context of the Linked Server.

Solution to this problem is very simple. Simply follow steps -
1.Open the Management Studio and navigate to Server Objects and then to Linked Server.
2.Right click on your Linked Server Name, and click on Properties.
3.Go to Security Page. Now for solving above problem you have 2 option, you can try any of the below 2 option.

A] Select the option “Be made without using a security context” by clicking on radio button.

OR

B] Select the last option “Be made using this security context ”.
As soon as click on the radio button before “Be made using this security context ”, the“Remote login” and “With password” text boxes become active to be filled in.
Now in the “Remote login”, enter Admin as the login user. Leave the password text box as blank.
Now just click on OK, and now can run the query against your linked server without any error.

- Mangal Pardeshi.

How to delete the Duplicate Rows from SQL Server table

Lets see how to delete the duplicate Rows from SQL Server table.

Sample Table:

ID	NAMES	CODE
1	Mangal	101
1	Mangal	101
1	Mangal	101
2	Ricky	102
3	Brian	103
4	shiv	104
4	Shiv	104
5	Kunal	105
5	Kunal	105
6	Kate	106

As you can see in above table, record with Id 1 has come thrice, and ID 4 and 7 has come twice.

Desired Output: after removing duplicates -

ID	NAMES	CODE
1	Mangal	101
2	Ricky	102
3	Brian	103
4	Shiv	104
5	Kunal	105
6	Kate	106

Create And Load Sample Data -

-- Create Sample table CREATE TABLE Temp ( Id INT, Names VARCHAR(100), Code INT ) GO -- Load sample data INSERT INTO Temp SELECT 1, 'Mangal', 123 UNION ALL SELECT 1, 'Mangal', 123 UNION ALL SELECT 1, 'Mangal', 123 UNION ALL SELECT 2, 'Ricky', 134  UNION ALL SELECT 3, 'Brian', 435 UNION ALL SELECT 4, 'Shiv', 223   UNION ALL SELECT 4, 'Shiv', 223   UNION ALL SELECT 5, 'Kunal', 654  UNION ALL SELECT 5, 'Kunal', 654  UNION ALL SELECT 6, 'Kate', 611 GO

Now first lets see how to find duplicate rows. With SQL Server 2005/2008 and Row_Number function, it has become very easy.


To Find Duplicate rows :

WITH Cte AS ( SELECT Id, Names, Code, ROW_NUMBER() Over (PARTITION BY Id ORDER BY ID) as Seq FROM TEMP ) SELECT DISTINCT ID, Names, Code FROM Cte WHERE Seq > 1

To Delete the Duplicate Rows :

WITH Cte AS ( SELECT Id, Names, Code, ROW_NUMBER() Over (PARTITION BY Id ORDER BY ID) as Seq FROM TEMP ) DELETE FROM cte WHERE Seq > 1

- Mangal Pardeshi