Published: Andreas Wiebe, 16 January 2011 - 04:42

Create an ODBC connection to a MySQL database

1. Download and install the MySQL ODBC driver
   1. You can obtain the MySQL ODBC driver here: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/5.1.html
   2. Once downloaded, install by double-clicking the file and following the prompts
      • See here for a step-by-step guide to installing the driver
2. Create an ODBC connection to the MySQL database
   1. Open the control panel
      • Windows XP: Click Start-->Settings-->Control Panel
      • Windows Vista & Windows 7: Click Start-->Control Panel
   2. Open "Administrative Tools"
   3. Double-click on "Data Sources (ODBC)"
   4. Click Add
      
   5. Select "MySQL ODBC x.x driver" (where x.x is the version number) and click Finish
      
   6. In the MySQL Connector/ODBC Data Source Configuration Dialog
      1. Enter the data source name you’d like to use and a description
         
      2. Enter the MySQL server address, if it’s on the same machine you’re running Excel on you can use "localhost"
      3. Enter the Username for the MySQL Database
      4. Enter the password for the MySQL Database
      5. Click test, if connection is successful continue on, otherwise double-check your MySQL server address, username, and password
      6. You can select a database or leave it blank at this time
   7. Click Ok to close the dialog