http://www.sqlexcel.net/
If you are a person who works with databases from day-to-day (as increasingly, I am...) then you probably at one time or another have used Microsoft Office and the MSQuery tool to build up your simple queries against those databases...If you don't know - MSQuery allows you to view database tables, create joins, build queries and output the results back into Excel or other programs.
MSQuery can really help you build simple queries using the graphical interface, but it most definitely has its limitations - namely, you can't use the GUI to build advanced queries. For that reason, we are left with finding alternatives that are a little more robust.
In the payware arena, I've really come to love EMS's Query for Microsoft SQL Server (and its variants for MySQL, etc.) and Navicat, but those are platform-centric, and definitely not free.
Recently, I've come across a small Excel add-in called (appropriately enough) 'SQLExcel'. SQLExcel makes it much easier to connect to your ODBC compliant database and browse table structures to build up your queries. Note that this doesn't just mean SQL-styled databases, but those that fall under the ODBC compliance umbrella. This means (according to the website) you can connect to "SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, MySQL, DB2, Firebird and any other ODBC compliant database."
Once you've installed SQLExcel, a new button appears in Excel (in your main toolbar if you have Excel 2003, or under 'Add-Ins' if you have 2007) called 'SQL'. Pressing this button presents you with the SQLExcel interface, which looks a little sparse at first, but don't worry - you just need to create a connection first.
Creating the connection is easy - just a few steps to define your database provider, server, database schema and credentials. After that, once you connect successfully, a list of tables appear on the right, and you can start building your queries!
This is a LOT nicer than Microsoft's offering, although in a pinch, MSQuery still can be handy. Me...? I think I'll be using SQLExcel exclusively.
What I really liked was how SQLExcel automatically created a join for obvious links in tables. For example, I had a two tables selected: UserConfig and UserStats (I was working with a BlackBerry Management database). There was an 'ID' field in UserConfig and a 'UserConfigID' field in UserStats. SQLExcel joined these automatically. Very handy - I can see this will be a timesaver!
I would love to see this or a new app as a variant as a stand-alone application so to easily export the data to a text file, csv, etc. without the aid of Excel (or more importantly I could use OpenOffice.org's Calc application).Overall, I found that SQLExcel was very responsive and easy to use - a new version is on the way, so stay tuned. I didn't see a donate link, but I'm sure if you asked, Al would find a way for you to do so...
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