Microsoft Office

Using Microsoft Query with External Database Files 33
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Item: A text field that specifies the budget item. Each budget category has different budget items.
For example, the Compensation category includes the following items: Benefits, Bonuses,
Commissions, Conferences, Entertainment, Payroll Taxes, Salaries, and Training.
Month: A text field that specifies the month (abbreviated as Jan, Feb, and so on).
n Year: A numeric field that stores the year (either 2005 or 2006).
n Budget: A numeric field that stores the budgeted amount.
n Actual: A numeric field that stores the actual amount spent.
n Variance: A numeric field that stores the difference between the Budget and Actual.
The task
The objective of this exercise is to create a report that shows the first quarter 2006 (January through March)
Compensation expenditures of the Training Department in the North American Division. In other words,
the query will extract records that meet all of the following criteria:
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The Division is N. America.
The Department is Training.
The Category is Compensation.
The Month is Jan, Feb, or Mar.
n The Year is 2006.
Using Query to get the data
One approach to this task is to import the entire Access file into a worksheet using the method described
earlier in this chapter (see “Importing Access Tables”). When the table is imported, you can filter it to display
only the rows that meet the specified criteria. This approach works because this particular table isn’t
very large. However, in some cases, the number of records in the table may exceed the number of rows in a
worksheet. The advantage of using Query is that it imports only the data that’s required. And, once you’ve
imported the data, you can refresh the query at any time to bring in updated data.
Selecting a data source
Begin with an empty worksheet. Choose Data ➪ Get External Data ➪ From Other Sources ➪ From
Microsoft Query, which displays the Choose Data Source dialog box, shown in Figure 33.4. This dialog box
contains three tabs:
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Databases: Lists the data sources that are known to Query — this tab may be empty, depending
on which data sources are defined on your system.
Queries: Contains a list of stored queries. Again, this tab may or may not be empty.
OLAP Cubes: Lists OLAP databases available for query.
Your system may have some data sources already defined. If so, they appear in the list on the Databases tab.
To set up a new data source, use the option. For this example, choose and click OK. The Create New Data Source dialog box, which has four parts, appears (see
Figure 33.5):
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