I am looking to create a small desktop application that will query an excel
database to match the zip code provided by the user of desktop application.
If the zip code matches, the database will provide back a result based on the
column information directly to the right of the zip code in the database. Is
this something that can be done just in excel, or what type of small
application will allow us to access the database without actually having
Excel opened or even on the computer.
--
Lost

You could surely do this in excel using =vlookup(). But that means that the
user has to have excel and excel has to open (as well as that workbook).

But depending on what you're looking for, you could save the data as a .CSV file
and use an old DOS command:

Windows start button|Run (or get to the command prompt):
find "00012" "c:\my documents\excel\book1.csv"

If you do this:
find /?
You'll see a short help for Find.

===========
I would think if you could find someone who spoke VB (or any other standalone
language), they could even make a nice little program with a pretty interface
that you could use to display the results.



Lost But Trying Hard wrote:

I am looking to create a small desktop application that will query an excel
database to match the zip code provided by the user of desktop application.
If the zip code matches, the database will provide back a result based on the
column information directly to the right of the zip code in the database. Is
this something that can be done just in excel, or what type of small
application will allow us to access the database without actually having
Excel opened or even on the computer.
--
Lost

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Dave Peterson