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RRMX01's avatar
RRMX01
Copper Contributor
Mar 25, 2021
Solved

Import excel into existing list (with data already in it)

Hi,   Is it possible to import data from an excel sheet into a SharePoint list that already contains data in it?  Basically I just want to add to the list that's already in SharePoint without overw...
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microsoft lists
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  • RobElliott's avatar
    RobElliott
    Mar 25, 2021

    RRMX01  if you go to Edit in grid view on your list you can paste in data from an excel spreadsheet.

     

    Rob
    Los Gallardos
    Microsoft Power Automate Community Super User

BenHoffmann's avatar
BenHoffmann
Copper Contributor
Apr 04, 2022
Pasting from Excel works for a few dozen rows, but gets very cumbersome with larger amounts of data. I have been able to insert larger data using Access, which can connect to the SharePoint list and allows you to write SQL-like insert queries.
B-Jayne Leuterman's avatar
B-Jayne Leuterman
Copper Contributor
Aug 17, 2022

BenHoffmann 

When you import from MS Access, can you import to an existing SP list?  I have imported from MS Access to create a new SP list but I want to import into an existing SP list so that I can define the columns before importing. 

  • Aitor_DLF's avatar
    Aitor_DLF
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 30, 2022
    Thank you ever so much!!!!! You’ve made my day 🙂
  • BenHoffmann's avatar
    BenHoffmann
    Copper Contributor
    Aug 25, 2022

    B-Jayne Leuterman Yes, that's the beauty of using Access. Create a blank Access database. From the External Data menu, choose New Data Source - Online -> SharePoint list. Paste the URL of the base of your SP site and select "Link to the data source". Select one or more lists. If any of your lists contain Person column types, Access may bring in an additional table called UserInfo that contains user profile data of what are called "site users". These are the users that have accessed your SP site at some point in time.

     

    If your SP list contains lookup columns, Access should also bring in the source lists of those lookup columns. For example, if your SP site has a list called Products and another list called Warehouses, and Products has a lookup column "Warehouse" that points to the Warehouses list, then linking to the Products list from Access should also bring in a link to the Warehouses list into Access.

     

    You can copy and paste data into these lists, similar to what people in this forum are describing about the SP web-based list interface. You can also write SQL-like queries in Access that insert data into the SP list from another Access table or other data source.

     

    Note that these SP lists appear in Access like tables, but are actually directly connected to the SP list. Therefore, changes/insertions you make in Access will immediately update the SP list online.

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