Linking two sheets in different books

[Glenn Mulno]

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been asked 1000 times already ...

I have two Excel files
file1.xls
file2.xls

File1 gets auto-generated each night and populated with the latest data.

I wish to create several graphs that use all the data in file1.xls but can't
create in file1 as it gets rewritten each night.

Several years ago I believe I did something where I entered a formula in
cell A1 of Sheet1 of file2.xls such that it pulled the entire contents of
Sheet1 of file1.xls into sheet1 of file2.xls. However - I can not figure
out how I did this years ago and all the references I have found looking
around seem to only talk about bringing over only a few cells. For example:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP051984241033.aspx

The full range of data in file1.xls is not consistent with each run so I can
not just hard code a specific range of cells. I just want to pull in the
entire sheet from the first file into the second file and have it be a
reference that gets refreshed with each opening.

Can anyone offer any suggestions on this? Please let me know if this is not
explained well enough or if I need to provide more details.

Many thanks,

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

Glenn,

Open both the workbooks, and run this little macro:

Sub Glenn()
Workbooks("File1.xls").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells.Copy _
Workbooks("File2.xls").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells
End Sub

This will, of course, remove any old data or formulas on Sheet1 of File2,
but won't affect any formulas on other sheets of File1. Those formulas
should probably be written to look at entire columns, to account for the
variable lengths.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

 

[Glenn Mulno]

Thanks Bernie. One follow up:

This works fine but only when both documents are open (as you mentioned). I
can't seem to figure out how to make it work for when the first document is
still closed. To the end users - they will not even know of the existence
of the first source file.

Once upon a time (8+ years ago at another company), I did this by entering a
single formula in cell A1 of the destination file and it automatically
updated when the file opened. I can't remember what I did and can't find any
reference to it so I don't know if I was dreaming or if the support for this
was taken away years ago.

Anyway - Thanks again for the response. Any help on getting this to happen
with the first doc still closed would be great.

--
Glenn

Glenn,

Open both the workbooks, and run this little macro:

Sub Glenn()
Workbooks("File1.xls").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells.Copy _
Workbooks("File2.xls").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells
End Sub

This will, of course, remove any old data or formulas on Sheet1 of File2,
but won't affect any formulas on other sheets of File1. Those formulas
should probably be written to look at entire columns, to account for the
variable lengths.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

Glenn,

You weren't dreaming.

Open up both books, and in the one that you want to have open, go to cell A1
of sheet1. Type in an = then navigate to the other workbook, and select
cell A1 of sheet1. Press enter, and you should have a link formula. Copy
that formula to all the other cells of the sheet, but only as many as you
reasonably expect to need, otherwise the file will become too large.

Then close the book that you want to have closed. The formulas with then
reference the closed book. Save and close the book with the formula. Then
overwrite the other book (give the new fiel the same name), and when you
open up the book with the formulas, they - the formulas - will automatically
reference the new workbook.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

Thanks Bernie. One follow up:

This works fine but only when both documents are open (as you mentioned).
I
can't seem to figure out how to make it work for when the first document
is
still closed. To the end users - they will not even know of the existence
of the first source file.

Once upon a time (8+ years ago at another company), I did this by entering
a
single formula in cell A1 of the destination file and it automatically
updated when the file opened. I can't remember what I did and can't find
any
reference to it so I don't know if I was dreaming or if the support for
this
was taken away years ago.

Anyway - Thanks again for the response. Any help on getting this to happen
with the first doc still closed would be great.

 

[Glenn Mulno]

This pulls in more than I would want. If a cell is empty then I end up with
a 0 in a cell that was just empty on the source sheet. I want to pull in an
exact replica of what is in the other sheet - formatting and all.

Oh well - Thanks anyway!

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

Glenn,

You can't pull in formatting and truly empty cells unless you use a macro.

You could modify my original macro to open the workbook:

Sub Glenn2()
With Application
.ScreenUpdating = False
.DisplayAlerts = False
Workbooks.Open "C:\FolderPath\File1.xls"
Workbooks("File1.xls").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells.Copy _
Workbooks("File2.xls").Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells
Workbooks("File1.xls").Close False
.ScreenUpdating = True
.DisplayAlerts = True
End With
End Sub

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

 

[Glenn Mulno]

YES! Thank you very much! I then wrapped it in the Workbook_Open()
function so that it happens automatically but this appears to work
wonderfully.

Thanks again!

 

[Bernie Deitrick]

YES! Thank you very much! I then wrapped it in the Workbook_Open()

function so that it happens automatically but this appears to work
wonderfully.

Thanks again!

You're welcome - we aim to please....

Bernie