Category: Microsoft Access

Excel VBA UDF Optimization: Using Dictionary Caching for Speed

Posted on December 6, 2025December 7, 2025 by raymond Posted in Excel/VBA, Microsoft AccessTagged Access database integration, eliminate VLOOKUP, Excel Automation, Excel best practices, Excel caching, Excel caching techniques, Excel database lookup, Excel developer tools, Excel front end Access backend, Excel optimization tips, Excel performance optimization, Excel UDF performance, Excel VBA, fast Excel formulas, reduce Excel file size, speed up Excel UDFs, VBA dictionary, VBA dictionary caching, VBA UDF optimizationLeave a Comment

When a UDF looks up data from an Access table, Excel can end up calling the function hundreds or even thousands of times during recalculation. Without a cache, each call hits the database (a.k.a. server trips), opening connections, running queries, and slowing things down unnecessarily. By loading the product table into a VBA Dictionary the […]

When Excel is Overwhelmed: Access Excel Integration

Posted on December 1, 2025December 7, 2025 by raymond Posted in Excel/VBA, Microsoft AccessTagged Access database for Excel, Avoid Excel crashes, Excel Access hybrid solutions, Excel as an Access DB front end, Excel data management, Excel database integration, Excel large dataset management, Excel multi-user problems, Excel performance issues, Excel spreadsheet bloat, Excel VBA best practices, Improve Excel performance, Relational database Excel, Spreadsheet optimizationLeave a Comment

IntroductionUsing Access as a backend transforms Excel from a bloated storage container into a fast, lightweight calculation and reporting tool. Over time, even the cleanest spreadsheets suffer from workbook creep—the slow, steady expansion of data, formulas, and hidden “temporary fixes” that turn a perfectly good model built two years ago into today’s slow, oversized, and […]