Is there a better way than the ones listed within to join data in an excel spreadsheet to a table in a SQL Server database? Let's say I'm given a list of names and email addresses in an excel spreadsheet. I am asked to find all customers in the database who's name, and email are in that list.

I currently know of two ways to achieve this...


Import the data into a new table (to be removed later) and then use this table to get the data.
Paste the names and addresses into a SQL query.


Is there a 'better' way to do this kind of thing (i.e. one that doesn't require me to place the data in the database before using it, and doesn't require me to create a monster query that has all the data in a 'where x in (data)' part)
Great question! Especially the "monster query" part ;)The answer is this guy here, enjoy: Excel Data Source as Linked Server