How to connect PolyBase to Excel

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Excel, you get access to your Excel data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Excel data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Excel data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Excel, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Excel and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Excel data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Excel

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Excel Sys is created automatically).

Connecting to Local or Cloud-Stored (Box, Google Drive, Amazon S3, SharePoint) Excel Files

CData Drivers let you work with Excel files stored locally and stored in cloud storage services like Box, Amazon S3, Google Drive, or SharePoint, right where they are.

Setting connection properties for local files

Set the URI property to local folder path.

Setting connection properties for files stored in Amazon S3

To connect to Excel file(s) within Amazon S3, set the URI property to the URI of the Bucket and Folder where the intended Excel files exist. In addition, at least set these properties:

• AWSAccessKey: AWS Access Key (username)
• AWSSecretKey: AWS Secret Key

Setting connection properties for files stored in Box

To connect to Excel file(s) within Box, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Box.

Dropbox

To connect to Excel file(s) within Dropbox, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Dropbox. Either User Account or Service Account can be used to authenticate.

SharePoint Online (SOAP)

To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with SOAP Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. Set User, Password, and StorageBaseURL.

SharePoint Online REST

To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with REST Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. StorageBaseURL is optional. If not set, the driver will use the root drive. OAuth is used to authenticate.

Google Drive

To connect to Excel file(s) within Google Drive, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect and set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Excel properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Excel.

Create an External Data Source for Excel Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Excel data.

NOTE: Since Excel does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL excel_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Excel

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Excel with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Excel, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_excel_source
WITH ( 
 LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
 CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Excel Sys',
 -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
 CREDENTIAL = excel_creds
);

Create External Tables for Excel

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Excel data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Excel. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

👁 Table definition in the DSN Configuration Wizard (Salesforce is shown)

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Excel Sheet would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Sheet(
 Name [nvarchar](255) NULL,
 Revenue [nvarchar](255) NULL,
 ...
) WITH ( 
 LOCATION='Sheet',
 DATA_SOURCE=cdata_excel_source
);

Having created external tables for Excel in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Excel, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Excel and start working with live Excel data alongside your SQL Server data today.