Okay if you read this blog you’ll know I’m more of a DB geek than an Excel user but I’m getting tired of every time that I want to do a quick sub-out of data having to load not one but two files into the DB and then write the query to join the two and get what I need. It’s a great way to go but awfully time consuming if it’s not going to be built into a SSIS pack or something of the sort.
So that brings us to the old standard Excel. Actually Excel is awfully handy on the export side of things but using it to import data from a DB or even flat file.
In this case we’ve got two sheets representing two tables with a common key.

• =VLOOKUP(F2,States!A$2:B$38,2)
• The $ keeps the range in the middle from moving when you populate down.
• In this case this is done in G2 where F2 is being looked up.
• The range is on a second sheet from A2 to B38 where items in A relate to F and the B value will be returned for G.
• Remember to have the columns in the same order to pull this off.

Just to note, if you are looking at using a field with a tilde, you have to escape it, which looks like this:

=VLOOKUP(SUBSTITUTE(B2,”~”,”~~”),Sheet1!A$2:B$234,2,FALSE)

So how many time did you think to yourself, wouldn’t it be nice to have a repository of names an addresses so I can load for testing? If you’re normal you’ve never asked yourself that. If you’re a computer geek it crosses your mind from time to time. Microsoft has generously given us the Adventure Works database and this is perfect for just such repository. You can find the DB on Microsoft’s site and here is a bit of SQL to get you started.

SELECT top 1000
	   replace(pe.EmailAddress, '@adventure-works.com', '@invalidemail.com') as Ident
	  --,p2.rowguid
      --,isnull(p2.[Title], '') as Title
      ,isnull(p2.[FirstName], '') as FirstName
      ,isnull(p2.[MiddleName], '') as MiddleName
      ,isnull(p2.[LastName], '') as LastName
      --,isnull(p2.[Suffix], '') as Suffix
	  ,replace(pa.AddressLine1, ',', '-') as AddressLine1
	  ,isnull(pa.AddressLine2, '') as AddressLine2
	  ,pa.City
	  --,sp.StateProvinceCode as State
	  --,sp.CountryRegionCode as Country
	  ,pa.PostalCode
	  ,replace(pe.EmailAddress, '@adventure-works.com', '@invalidemail.com') as EmailAddress
	  ,isnull((select pp.PhoneNumber where pp.PhoneNumberTypeID = 1), '') as CellPhone
	  ,isnull((select pp.PhoneNumber where pp.PhoneNumberTypeID = 2), '') as HomePhone
	  ,isnull((select pp.PhoneNumber where pp.PhoneNumberTypeID = 3), '') as WorkPhone
	  ,Lower(LEFT(p2.FirstName, 1) + p2.LastName) as Username
	  ,'taleo123' as Pswd
  FROM [Person].[Person] p2
  join Person.BusinessEntityAddress ba on (p2.BusinessEntityID = ba.BusinessEntityID)
  join Person.Address pa on (ba.AddressID = pa.AddressID)
  join Person.StateProvince sp on (sp.StateProvinceID = pa.StateProvinceID)
  join Person.EmailAddress pe on (p2.BusinessEntityID = pe.BusinessEntityID)
  join Person.PersonPhone pp on (p2.BusinessEntityID = pp.BusinessEntityID)
  where sp.CountryRegionCode = 'US'
order by LastName, FirstName