For a reason I can't quite fathom, a big company like Oracle built a clunky
interface for external applications to query their databases.

The necessary components a
the Oracle instance
the Client software
AND....the TNSNAMES.ORA file

That is a specially formatted text file that the client software and DSN
connections uses to connect to the Oracle database.

This is a typical TNSNAMES.ORA entry:
prod.busyb =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS =
(COMMUNITY = TCPCOM.world)
(PROTOCOL = TCP)
(HOST = 131.101.62.20)
(PORT = 1521)
)
)
(CONNECT_DATA = (SID = PROD)
)
)

I use VBA and a DSN-less connection to access Oracle, so I'm a bit rusty on
the specifiics...but, when using ODBC you need to make sure the proper
TNSNAMES entry exists in that file. Your DBA can assist.


Does that help?

***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP-Pro


"johnthemonn" wrote:

hello Ron,

I have the exact same problem as Excel GuRu and I do not know what
TNSNAMES.ORA means so please enlighten us



"Ron Coderre" wrote:

I have one question:
TNSNAMES.ORA?

If you don't know what that means, then I think we may have found your
problem.

Let me know.

***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP-Pro


"Excel GuRu" wrote:

Tried something different. Had another user create a query and save the
query from Microsoft Excel. I copied the query to my hard drive. I open a
new spreadshet, new database query, select queries tab, browse to find the
query, when I select the query I get the following error message.

"Data source name not found and no default driver specified."

Any thoughts?

"Excel GuRu" wrote:

In Excel, I open a new spreadsheet, set up a new database query, select the
tables, fields, and criteria for my query, return the data to excel. Once I
return the data to Excel, it appears I am unable to edit the query. I've
tested this in multiple spreadsheets and the same error occurs. Does anybody
have an idea what the issue could be. I am querying an Oracle Database and
am running Excel 2003.