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The Excel ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Excel file data, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Excel Spreadsheet data like you would a database - read, write, and update data through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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Viewing Excel Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer


How to view Excel data in RAD Studio Data Explorer using the CData ODBC Driver for Excel.

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Excel, you gain access to live Excel data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update Excel data. This article will walk through connecting to Excel using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Excel

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

The ExcelFile, under the Authentication section, must be set to a valid Excel File.

Connecting to Excel Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Excel data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Excel and a new VCL Forms Application:

  1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
  2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
  3. Click Add New Connection.
  4. Enter a name for the connection.
  5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Excel.
  6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the tables for the connection.

  7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a table (for example: Sheet) onto the form.

  8. Select the SheetTable object on the form and set the Active property to true.

  9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

  10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Sheet data.