Get data out of excel file stored as an image data type

[MKH]

Greetings,

• OS = Windows 2000 Server SP4
• SQL = MS SQL 2000 Server SP4
• Language = T-SQL

I have an excel file stored in a data base table as an image data type. I would like to somehow read the data from the excel file and extract its data into a data base table using t-sql.

I've used sql statements such as the following but this requires the excel file to reside as a physical file on the sql servers file system.

insert into SpreadsheetDataDump 
(f1,f2,f3,f4,f5,f6)  
Select f1,f2,f3,f4,f5,f6 
FROM OPENDATASOURCE
('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0','Data Source="D:\spreadsheets\test.xls";Extended Properties="Excel 8.0;IMEX=1;HDR=NO"')
...WorksheetName$

In my case, I do not want the excel file to reside on the file system because I require many different users to submit excel files. I just cannot afford to expose the file system to so many users, so I've created a web interface for the users to upload the excel file into the database.

Can this be done? Or do I have to parse out the image data as an excel file somewhere on the sql servers file system?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

-Mike