title: Any downsides using ODBC to connect to SQL Server from Excel
body: <p>I'm creating many Excel reports (Excel 2010 upwards) with data from SQL Server. I first used OLEDB Connection fine, then was forced to switch to ODBC as <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5434768/how-to-pass-parameters-to-query-in-sql-excel">OLEDB does not support passing parameters to queries</a> or stored procedures from Excel. I was barred from using Macros.
  The only option is to use ODBC which works great with parameters. However it was very long since I used ODBC, in those days we need to create a DSN and the file needs to exist on each PC to be able to use the connection. My Excel reports will be accessed by many users from Sharepoint. So not possible to copy the DSN file everywhere. So I'm wondering if ODBC connections are much more easier to use now than before. If I use it in my Excel files with windows authentication and deploy it to Sharepoint, will users be able to access it just the way they do with OLEDB? </p>
  
  <p>I don't find much information on this or I might not know where to look for this. I hope someone can help.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>