Working with XML in MS Excel and MS Access

Learn how you can use eXtensible Markup Language in MS Access & MS Excel

Working with XML in MS Excel and MS Access

Vibhor Goyal
2 months ago
500

Hi All,

Posting something after a long time. In the meantime i was trying to learn xml and its applications within VB and MS Excel. I also bought this book called ” XML programming with VB and ASP” by Mark and Tracey Wilson. This book proved to be very useful in clearing some of the basic concepts about XML and its application with VB. I would first like to clear some of the basic facts about XML:

  • XML was designed to structure, store and transport data.
  • It is more of a scripting langauge like HTML than a programming language like VB, C etc.
  • With XML you can invent your own tags.
  • XML data is stored in plain text format and can be imported in almost all the latest technologies.

Now I want to clear some facts about Importing, Exporting XML data with applications like MS Excel an MS Access.All the XML files are saved with extension .xml and in order to import an XML file in:

  • Excel 2007 : Data-Other Sources- Import data from XML files
  • Excel 2003: Data-XML-Import
  • Access 2003: File-Get External Data-Import-XML (Files of Type)

In order to export data in XML format, it can be done very easily through File-Export in MS Access 2003. MS Excel doesn’t have any such export procedure. In order to create XML ranges in MS Excel you need to download an Addin from Microsoft website and it can be used to create and export XML Data ranges.

I hope this post is helpful to a lot of users.

Regards,

Vibhor