sql - Querying more than 65536 rows error in Excel 2013

Question

I am trying to query a spreadsheet using VBA and am running up against a seeming hard limit of 65536 rows (though I am running Excel 2013).

When trying to select all rows where the number of rows is greater than 65536 I get the following error message:

runtime error '-2147217865 (80040e37)':

The Microsoft Access database engine could not find the object 'Sheet1$A1:A65537'.....

My code:

Option Explicit

Sub ExcelQuery()

Dim conXLS As ADODB.Connection
Dim rsXLS As ADODB.Recordset
Dim strPath As String
Dim strSQL As String
Dim i As Integer

'Get the full directory + file name location of the current workbook (so it can query itself)'
strPath = Application.ActiveWorkbook.FullName

'create the ADO connection to the excel file'
Set conXLS = New ADODB.Connection
With conXLS
    .Provider = "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0"
    .ConnectionString = "Data Source=" & strPath & ";" & _
    "Extended Properties=""Excel 12.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=1;Readonly=False"""
End With
conXLS.Open

strSQL = "" & _
    "SELECT " & _
        "* " & _
    "FROM " & _
        "[Sheet1$A1:A65537] "

'create ADO recordset to hold contents of target sheet.'
Set rsXLS = New ADODB.Recordset
With rsXLS
    .CursorLocation = adUseClient
    .CursorType = adOpenForwardOnly
    .LockType = adLockReadOnly
End With

'using SQL return contents of the target sheet'
rsXLS.Open strSQL, conXLS

'disconnect the active connection'
Set rsXLS.ActiveConnection = Nothing

'Return results to excel'
Sheets("Sheet2").Cells(1, 1).CopyFromRecordset rsXLS

Set rsXLS = Nothing

'destroy the connection object'
conXLS.Close
Set conXLS = Nothing

End Sub

I also tried the connection string:

With conXLS
    .Provider = "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.12.0"
    .ConnectionString = "Data Source=" & strPath & ";" & _
    "Extended Properties=Excel 12.0;"
    .Open

I have set references to "Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 6.0 Library" and "OLE Automation".

Interestingly, there seems to be no problem when using MSQuery.

Answer 1

Older Excel versions (prior to 2007) indeed have a limit of some 65k+ rows per worksheet. Run your code and reference any object Lib starting w/Excel 2007 and up (max 1,048,576 rows per worksheet, Lib version correspondingly 12.x and up). Pertinent to your case, try to use a notation [Sheet1$A:A] instead of [Sheet1$A1:A65537] Rgds,