VBA Working with ADO Retrieving records with a query
Example
Queries can be performed in two ways, both of which return an ADO Recordset object which is a collection of returned rows. Note that both of the examples below use the OpenDatabaseConnection function from the Making a connection to a data source example for the purpose of brevity. Remember that the syntax of the SQL passed to the data source is provider specific.
The first method is to pass the SQL statement directly to the Connection object, and is the easiest method for executing simple queries:
Public Sub DisplayDistinctItems()
On Error GoTo Handler
Dim database As ADODB.Connection
Set database = OpenDatabaseConnection(SomeDSN)
If Not database Is Nothing Then
Dim records As ADODB.Recordset
Set records = database.Execute("SELECT DISTINCT Item FROM Table")
'Loop through the returned Recordset.
Do While Not records.EOF 'EOF is false when there are more records.
'Individual fields are indexed either by name or 0 based ordinal.
'Note that this is using the default .Fields member of the Recordset.
Debug.Print records("Item")
'Move to the next record.
records.MoveNext
Loop
End If
CleanExit:
If Not records Is Nothing Then records.Close
If Not database Is Nothing And database.State = adStateOpen Then
database.Close
End If
Exit Sub
Handler:
Debug.Print "Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description
Resume CleanExit
End Sub
The second method is to create an ADO Command object for the query you want to execute. This requires a little more code, but is necessary in order to use parametrized queries:
Public Sub DisplayDistinctItems()
On Error GoTo Handler
Dim database As ADODB.Connection
Set database = OpenDatabaseConnection(SomeDSN)
If Not database Is Nothing Then
Dim query As ADODB.Command
Set query = New ADODB.Command
'Build the command to pass to the data source.
With query
.ActiveConnection = database
.CommandText = "SELECT DISTINCT Item FROM Table"
.CommandType = adCmdText
End With
Dim records As ADODB.Recordset
'Execute the command to retrieve the recordset.
Set records = query.Execute()
Do While Not records.EOF
Debug.Print records("Item")
records.MoveNext
Loop
End If
CleanExit:
If Not records Is Nothing Then records.Close
If Not database Is Nothing And database.State = adStateOpen Then
database.Close
End If
Exit Sub
Handler:
Debug.Print "Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description
Resume CleanExit
End Sub
Note that commands sent to the data source are vulnerable to SQL injection, either intentional or unintentional. In general, queries should not be created by concatenating user input of any kind. Instead, they should be parameterized (see Creating parameterized commands).
