I love using Google Docs function =importxml() but would love to know if there was anything like it in Excel 2010? I cant seem to find a way for the program to automatically pull data from a linked XML file.
For example, I would love to be able to set up a column with the header "Item Name", then have the next column append the user-entered item name in the previous column to this url
http://util.eveuniversity.org/xml/itemLookup.php?name=
and then parse the resulting XML file to return the type ID. This is accomplished in google docs using
=importxml(concatenate("http://util.eveuniversity.org/xml/itemLookup.php?name=",A3);"//itemLookup/typeID")
A3 is the column that has the item name, which in this case would be Tritanium, and imports the data form the resulting XML file
http://util.eveuniversity.org/xml/itemLookup.php?name=Tritanium
which returns the value 34.
I have a list of about 20 item names that google docs automatically updates the item ID on every time I open the file. Is there any way for Excel 2010 to replicate this function?
Thanks!
Will
You will need to write your own UDF.
One way would be to use the MSXML2
library, something like this:
Function GetData(sName As String, sItem As String, Optional sURL = "") As Variant
Dim oHttp As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60
Dim xmlResp As MSXML2.DOMDocument60
Dim result As Variant
On Error GoTo EH
If sURL = "" Then
sURL = "http://util.eveuniversity.org/xml/itemLookup.php?name="
End If
'open the request and send it
oHttp.Open "GET", sURL & sName, False
oHttp.Send
'get the response as xml
Set xmlResp = oHttp.responseXML
' get Item
GetData = xmlResp.getElementsByTagName(sItem).Item(0).Text
' Examine output of these in the Immediate window
Debug.Print sName
Debug.Print xmlResp.XML
CleanUp:
On Error Resume Next
Set xmlResp = Nothing
Set oHttp = Nothing
Exit Function
EH:
GetData = CVErr(xlErrValue)
GoTo CleanUp
End Function
Call it like this (where A5
contains the required typeName
)
=GetData(A5, "typeID")
Question is from 2013, some time has passed...
With Excel 2013, there is a function WEBSERVICE to load XML documents, that would do exactly what you want.
There is also FILTERXML to search loaded XML document using XPath.
Function ImportXML(url As String, query As String)
Dim document As MSXML2.DOMDocument60
Dim http As New MSXML2.XMLHTTP60
http.Open "GET", url, False
http.send
Set document = http.responseXML
ImportXML = document.SelectSingleNode(query).nodeTypedValue
End Function
The 'From Web' function on the Data menu will pull online data directly into spreadsheet. XML data import is also available under the From Other Sources sub-menu, also listed on the data menu.
Created connections are managed via the Connections dialogue box on the Data menu.
Sample code using record macros while creating a 'From Web' connection:
Sub Macro1()
' Macro1 Macro
With ActiveSheet.QueryTables.Add(Connection:= _
"URL;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Excel" _
, Destination:=Range("$A$1"))
.Name = _
"?affID=110195&tt=270912_7a_3912_6&babsrc=HP_ss&mntrId=3e2fc48700000000000088532eb428ec"
.FieldNames = True
.RowNumbers = False
.FillAdjacentFormulas = False
.PreserveFormatting = True
.RefreshOnFileOpen = False
.BackgroundQuery = True
.RefreshStyle = xlInsertDeleteCells
.SavePassword = False
.SaveData = True
.AdjustColumnWidth = True
.RefreshPeriod = 0
.WebSelectionType = xlEntirePage
.WebFormatting = xlWebFormattingNone
.WebPreFormattedTextToColumns = True
.WebConsecutiveDelimitersAsOne = True
.WebSingleBlockTextImport = False
.WebDisableDateRecognition = False
.WebDisableRedirections = False
.Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
End With
End Sub