ODBC - Excel to Informix

> Is anyone using ODBC in Excel (under windows) to retrieve from Informix? > I have a user who could really use this for inquiries if I can get her set up. > Suggestions? > -Dave We are, and the users love it. There are several things to bear in mind: 1) The users will have to know the table structure. They will be using column names, and must know the relationships between tables, and to ignore system tables. 2) You are building a "house of cards", and users will have a hard time running it reliably. You have: User Analysis Excel Windows Q+E I-Net Network I-Star OnLine Unix Be prepared for the effort required to make all this "really" run, vs the advertising hype. 3) Users can build unreasonable queries and bog/lock your db. It's easy for them to code sequential access queries that will take years to run. 4) Users can build unreasonable queries and bog/lock their PCs. Excel can only hold ~16000 rows. 5) It can be hard for the Informix "back end" to know when the PC "front end" is gone, and many back end processes can accumulate. That's just off the top of my head. It's a tremendous pain in the a**, but the users are getting so much good analysis with the PC tools (that we didn't have to write!) that we are diving in with both feet. Also, see the data whorehousing--eh, I mean warehousing thread. That's where you are going. Good luck __________________________________________________________________ | Clem Akins Standard Disclaimers Apply | |Reynolds Metals Co, Alloys Plant "Climb High, Cave Deep!" | | Muscle Shoals, Alabama USA cwakins@leia.alloys.rmc.com | |________________________________________________________________|