# MS Excel - Connect to a SQL Server database, run a query and get the results > Connect MS Excel to SQL Server with VBA. Run SQL queries, inject results directly into your spreadsheet, and preserve formatting. Learn the best method for data refresh or secure sharing. ---  **TL;DR** This article points to the author's `vba_excel_sql` GitHub project, which provides VBA code to run a SQL query against a SQL Server database directly from Excel and inject the results into a sheet while preserving its formatting. Two injection methods are offered: `AddQueryTable` (keeps the connection live for one-click refresh) and `CopyToSheet` (drops the connection/credentials, safer for sharing). > **Information:** > > Please read my new article [MS Excel - Connect to a SQL Server database, run a query and get the results - Step by step](/blog/vba-excel-sql-server-part-2) which is more complete than this one. Imagine you can execute a query like `SELECT customer_id, first_name, last_name, email FROM customers ORDER BY last_name ASC;` in your Excel sheet and that Excel will connect your [Microsoft SQL Server database](/blog/docker-mssql-server), run the query there, get the result and put the data directly in your sheet. Would be nice, no? Imagine your sheet has already a nice layout with colors, titles having filters enabled and f.i. has a name (like `rngMyCustomers`). It would be nice if the updated data still keep all the layouts and just extends the name; no? Stop imagining, it's just so easy! Years ago, I published for this. You'll retrieve in my GitHub repository all the explanations to do this i.e. a VBA code to add in your Excel file ([quick access](https://github.com/cavo789/vba_excel_sql/blob/master/src/SQL2Excel.xlsm/clsData.cls)) and a [demo](https://github.com/cavo789/vba_excel_sql/blob/master/src/SQL2Excel.xlsm/test.bas). This time, I won't rewrite the whole explanation in the form of a post because everything is already listed on GitHub; please follow this link: > **AddQueryTable or CopyToSheet:** > > You'll see there are two methods: `AddQueryTable` and `CopyToSheet`. With the first one, data will be injected into your Excel sheet as a *query table* and this gives immense powers like the requery one. In other words, the next time, you just need to right-click on your table and from the contextual menu, chose `Refresh` and hop, the query is executed back on SQL Server and you'll get the update in a matter of seconds. > > With `CopyToSheet`, you'll lose the connectivity: it'll be safe to send the sheet to someone else. The credentials needed to connect to the server won't be kept in the sheet contrary to the `AddQueryTable` feature.