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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/databricks-cloud-excel-365.rst

⇱ Access Live Databricks Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

Access Live Databricks Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Connect to Databricks data from Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web) with CData Connect AI.

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When integrated with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate access to Databricks data directly from within Excel. This access facilitates data analysis, collaborative work, calculations, and more. This article provides a step-by-step guide on connecting to Databricks within your Connect AI instance and accessing live Databricks data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Databricks, allowing you to easily access live Databricks data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect AI Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Databricks, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Databricks data.

About Databricks Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from Databricks has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Access all versions of Databricks from Runtime Versions 9.1 - 13.X to both the Pro and Classic Databricks SQL versions.
  • Leave Databricks in their preferred environment thanks to compatibility with any hosting solution.
  • Secure authenticate in a variety of ways, including personal access token, Azure Service Principal, and Azure AD.
  • Upload data to Databricks using Databricks File System, Azure Blog Storage, and AWS S3 Storage.

While many customers are using CData's solutions to migrate data from different systems into their Databricks data lakehouse, several customers use our live connectivity solutions to federate connectivity between their databases and Databricks. These customers are using SQL Server Linked Servers or Polybase to get live access to Databricks from within their existing RDBMs.

Read more about common Databricks use-cases and how CData's solutions help solve data problems in our blog: What is Databricks Used For? 6 Use Cases.


Getting Started


This setup requires a CData Connect AI instance and the CData Connect AI Add-In for Excel. To get started, sign up a free trial of Connect AI and install the free Connect AI Excel Add-In.


Configure Databricks Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to Databricks from Excel is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Databricks data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a Databricks connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Databricks" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Databricks.

    To connect to a Databricks cluster, set the properties as described below.

    Note: The needed values can be found in your Databricks instance by navigating to Clusters, and selecting the desired cluster, and selecting the JDBC/ODBC tab under Advanced Options.

    • Server: Set to the Server Hostname of your Databricks cluster.
    • HTTPPath: Set to the HTTP Path of your Databricks cluster.
    • Token: Set to your personal access token (this value can be obtained by navigating to the User Settings page of your Databricks instance and selecting the Access Tokens tab).
    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Databricks Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Databricks data from Excel for the web.

Access Live Databricks Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live Databricks data.

  1. Log into Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
  2. Click Insert and click Office Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
  3. Search for CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In and install the Add-in. 👁 Install the Add-In
  4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
  5. In the Add-In panel, click Login or Sign-up to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance 👁 Authorizing the Add-In
  6. In the CData Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import 👁 CData Connect AI panel in Excel
  7. Choose a Connection (e.g. Databricks1), Table (e.g. Customers), and Columns to import 👁 CData Connect AI panel in Excel
  8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit 👁 Choosing a Connection, Table, and Columns
  9. Click Execute to import the data 👁 Executing the Query

Update Databricks Data from Excel

In addition to viewing Databricks data in Excel, CData Connect AI also lets you update and delete Databricks data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

  1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Databricks (your changes will be in red)
  2. In the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In panel, select Update
  3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
  4. Click Execute to push the updates to Databricks 👁 Updating data (Salesforce is shown).

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Databricks Data from Cloud Applications

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Databricks data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

👁 Imported data (Salesforce is shown)

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.