Oracle Database Discussions

Hello,

I am trying to connect Excel 2010 directly to the Oracle database at work. I was hoping to combine VBA and SQL to automate queries without having to use SQL Developer or the bespoke enterprise software to then export the data into a spreadsheet. I have downloaded the ODBC driver and installed it onto my PC. I have tried to configure the connection and the tnsnames.ora file but it will not connect (I can get the exact error from work tomorrow).

I have an XML file that contains all of the connection details (such as the ports, passwords and the server name) for the databases that I need to access. There isn’t anyone who can help me at work as the former IT manager has left and my current manager has very little technical knowledge.

The network is managed by a different part of the business at an external site containing all of the servers. Although I have an administrator account, it is very restricted so I cannot use the command prompt but I can install software.

I would be grateful for any advice. If it helps the operating system I am using is Windows Vista 32-Bit. I am unsure which version of Oracle we are using (it might be 10g but is there anything I could type into SQL Developer that would display the version of Oracle I am using?).

Many thanks in advance and sorry for probably not explaining things very well,

Matt