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Asked: 2026-05-24T17:17:44+00:00

I am using Excel VBA’s WebQuery, using something similar to this example: (This example

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I am using Excel VBA’s WebQuery, using something similar to this example:
(This example is actually copy-pasted from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/213730 and I am using a different URL with different POST arguments)

Sub URL_Post_Query()

With ActiveSheet.QueryTables.Add(Connection:= _
    "URL;http://webservices.pcquote.com/cgi-bin/excel.exe", _
    Destination:=Range("a1"))

    .PostText = _
        "QUOTE0=[""QUOTE0"",""Enter up to 20 symbols separated " & _
              "by spaces.""]"

   .BackgroundQuery = True
    .TablesOnlyFromHTML = True
    .Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
    .SaveData = True
End With
End Sub

I need to be able to make particularly large queries (for example, let’s say I’m getting stock price information for 20,000 securities), and when I do so, Excel “locks up” and doesn’t display any progress while it is working, although the query does successfully complete.

Using this syntax, is there any way to get access to the stream of data, as it is coming in? This would help in 2 ways: I could process data in smaller chunks as it is received, and I could create a progress meter to display to the user.

Thanks.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If you want more control, you could switch from the web query to something like using an instance of xmlhttp: this can be used asynchronously (not super-simple, but quite do-able):

    http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2006/10/09/async-xmlhttp-calls/

    Note there’s no guarantee that when you send a large block of symbols the webservice returns the response for each symbol individually: it’s common for servers to buffer content until the entire response is complete.

    You might be better off chunking your quotes into multiple requests, each with a smaller number of symbols.

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