MasmBasic

[Gunther]

Jochen,

looks like a rock solid work.  :t

Gunther

[jj2007]

Danke, Gunther :icon14:

Although DDE is an old technology, there are some arguments for using it - it's fast, lightweight, and there is no "version hell" as (reportedly) with the alternative COM technology. What I really needed was pulling tables programmatically out of an Excel file - sounds simple but if you don't want the user to install add-ins (with all the nice warnings about untrusted software etc), then DDE is probably the only option.

One problem is the documentation; DDE uses the old Excel 4.0 macro language, the only official source is "MacroFun.hlp" from Microsoft Support.

[TouEnMasm]

What I really needed was pulling tables programmatically out of an Excel file

If it is just for that,ODBC is better (same language since ....)

[japheth]

If it is just for that,ODBC is better (same language since ....)

What is better with ODBC?

- DDE  = dinosaur technology
- COM/OLE = pleistocene
- ODBC = ??? (  perhaps eocene? )

[TouEnMasm]

What is better with ODBC?

The Use of sql with it , simplify the work.
Simple to use,you don't need to know all the langage.
Access can generate SQL for you.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb545450.aspx
2012 isn't so old.

[dedndave]

i mentioned in the other thread that i had to have Excel for a business client
what i did at the time was - Save Special (without the cell formulas) - Save As CSV
then, i wrote a csv2bin program in 16-bit code   :P

[jj2007]

What I really needed was pulling tables programmatically out of an Excel file

If it is just for that,ODBC is better (same language since ....)

Hi Yves,

Please show me. Write a little example  - just extracting a table by RnCn:RmCm coordinates.
The testfile is at \Masm32\RichMasm\Res\LifeExOECD.xls

:t

[TouEnMasm]

The file is not a database.
A database had columns titles on the first line.
Do it and no more problems.

[jj2007]

If it is just for that,ODBC is better (same language since ....)

There is an old German proverb: Wer gackert muss auch legen. Free translation "He who cackles must lay an egg".

Waiting for your sample code showing that "ODBC is better", Yves

(the requirement is very simple, "get data out of Excel without the user having to install an add-in or a macro; establish a hotlink so that Excel sends data to your proggie every time the Excel user has changed a cell". It would also nice to preserve the formatting as shown in the attached example - source in \Masm32\RichMasm\Res\XlsViewer.asc. If you change the ending to .edm, you can even view it in EditMasm, as it's RTF...)

[TouEnMasm]

What I really needed was pulling tables programmatically out of an Excel file

For That,not for all thing you want to do.

[jj2007]

Waiting for your sample code showing that "ODBC is better", Yves

[japheth]

Waiting for your sample code showing that "ODBC is better", Yves

I cannot see why he needs to provide "sample code" - that's an additional requirement imposed by you, troll!  :icon_mrgreen:

Actually, it is sufficient if a plausible reason is supplied that makes obvious - more or less -  that ODBC is at least in one aspect better than DDE.

One possible reason that comes into my mind is that DDE requires a window for communication, while ODBC does NOT requires this.

[jj2007]

One possible reason that comes into my mind is that DDE requires a window for communication, while ODBC does NOT requires this.

Thanks for this clarification, Andreas. I wonder, though, why the attached executable works - must be an invisible window then  ::)

Source is in \Masm32\RichMasm\Res\Masm2Excel.asc, the Excel sheet at \Masm32\RichMasm\Res\LifeExOECD.xls ;-)

Still waiting for demo code (or at least: arguments) why ODBC is better than DDE for grabbing data from an Excel sheet ;-)

EDIT: To complete the DDE interface, I added four new macros, ddeConnect, ddeDisconnect, ddeCommand and ddeRequest$(). This snippet shows the Firefox URL currently loaded, and if the user presses y, it opens a new page (code for MSIE attached):

include \masm32\MasmBasic\MasmBasic.inc        ; download
  Init
  ddeConnect "Firefox|WWW_GetWindowInfo"
  .if !Zero?
        PrintLine "Current URL= ", ddeRequest$("URL")
        ddeDisconnect
        Inkey "Open a new page (y)?"
        .if eax=="y"
                ddeConnect "Firefox|WWW_OpenURL"
                .if !Zero?
                        ddeCommand "http://masm32.com/board/index.php?action=unread"
                        ddeDisconnect
                .endif
        .endif
  .endif
  Inkey CrLf$, "bye"
  Exit
end start

[jj2007]

Bugfix concerning \Masm32\RichMasm\Res\Masm2Excel.asc, line 51:

Wrong:
                mov ecx, Instr_(esi, "[Book")                ; this might fail for a non-English Excel version
                .if ecx
                        .if Instr_(ecx, esi, Tb$)
                                xlsConnect Mid$(esi, ecx, edx-1)          ; connect to the new sheet
                        Let TopBot$=String$(9, Cat$("xxxxxxxxx"+Tb$))+"x"
                        xlsWrite "R2C3:R2C14", TopBot$

Right:
                mov ecx, Instr_(esi, "[Book")                ; this might fail for a non-English Excel version
                .if ecx
                        .if Instr_(ecx, esi, Tb$)
                                xlsConnect Mid$(esi, ecx, edx-ecx)          ; connect to the new sheet
                        Let TopBot$=String$(9, Cat$("xxxxxxxxx"+Tb$))+"x"
                        xlsWrite "R2C3:R2C14", TopBot$

Excel 2003 did not complain about being connected to [Book1]Sheet1 whatever, but Excel 2010 didn't like it 

Updated library here, as always.

[japheth]

Thanks for this clarification, Andreas. I wonder, though, why the attached executable works - must be an invisible window then  ::)

Yes, I guess that's true. Sorry, can't really run your sample because I threw away the MSO BS from this machine - and the one where it's still installed is now too noisy for my taste.