How to Use DAO to Create a New Microsoft Excel Workbook

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Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. To create a new Microsoft Excel database, follow these steps:

1. Use the OpenDatabase method to open a new .xls file.
2. Create a new table definition for the database.
3. Create a new field for the new table.
4. Append the field to the table.
5. Append the table to the database.

The macro below demonstrates this process.

NOTE: To use this macro, you must do the following:

1. In Microsoft Excel 2000, click the module that will contain your subroutine, click References on the Tools menu. In the list of Available References, select the checkbox next to "Microsoft DAO 3.6 Object Library". Then, click OK.
   
   In Microsoft Excel 97, activate the module that will contain your subroutine. On the Tools menu, click References. In the list of Available References, select the checkbox next to "Microsoft DAO 3.5 Object Library". Then, click OK.
   
   In Microsoft Excel 7.0 for Windows 95, activate the module that will contain your subroutine. On the Tools menu, click References. In the list of Available References, select the checkbox next to "Microsoft DAO 3.0 Object Library". Then, click OK.
2. Create an empty folder called C:\Test.

Sample Macro

Sub CreateXLS()

Dim Db as Database
Dim Tbl as TableDef
Dim Fld as Field

    'Create and open an Excel 5.0 database
    Set Db = OpenDatabase("C:\Test\Book1.xls", False, False, "Excel 5.0;")

    'Create a new table definition for a table called NewTable
    Set Tbl = Db.CreateTableDef("NewTable")

    'Create a new field in NewTable and call it NewField
    Set Fld = tbl.CreateField("NewField", dbInteger)

    'Append the field to the table and then append the table to the
    'database
    Tbl.Fields.Append Fld
    Db.TableDefs.Append Tbl

    'Close the database
    Db.Close

End Sub
				

After you run this macro, a Microsoft Excel 5.0 workbook called Book1.xls will reside in the directory C:\Test. This workbook will contain one worksheet called "NewTable" and also a defined name called "NewTable" which refers to the range NewTable!$A$1:$A$1. Cell A1 will contain the text "NewField."