{"id":2154,"date":"2026-06-29T15:46:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T07:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/?p=2154"},"modified":"2026-03-28T08:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T08:56:24","slug":"how-to-use-applicationoledberrors-in-the-xlwings-api-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/how-to-use-applicationoledberrors-in-the-xlwings-api-way\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use Application.OLEDBErrors in the xlwings API way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong>OLEDBErrors<\/strong> member of the <strong>Application<\/strong> object in Excel&#8217;s object model represents a collection of <strong>OLEDBError<\/strong> objects. These objects provide detailed information about errors that occur during an OLE DB query operation, such as when refreshing data connections linked to external databases (e.g., SQL Server, Access). This is particularly useful for debugging and handling data connection issues programmatically, allowing developers to identify specific error numbers, descriptions, and the responsible application or provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In xlwings, you can access this collection via the <code>api<\/code> property of the main <code>App<\/code> or <code>Book<\/code> object, which exposes the underlying Excel VBA object model. The syntax for referencing the OLEDBErrors collection is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><code>xlwings.App.api.OLEDBErrors<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">or, if working with a specific workbook:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><code>xlwings.Book.api.Parent.OLEDBErrors<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The OLEDBErrors collection has several key properties and methods, but note that it is typically read-only and used for inspection. The most commonly used property is <code>Item(index)<\/code>, which returns a single <strong>OLEDBError<\/strong> object. Each OLEDBError object has properties like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>ErrorString<\/strong>: A descriptive text of the error.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Native<\/strong>: The native error code from the OLE DB provider.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Number<\/strong>: The error number.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>SqlState<\/strong>: The SQL state code.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ApplicationName<\/strong>: The name of the application that generated the error.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To retrieve error details, you would first check the <code>Count<\/code> property of the OLEDBErrors collection to see if any errors exist, then iterate through them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here is a practical xlwings code example that demonstrates how to use the OLEDBErrors collection. This example assumes you have an Excel workbook with an existing OLE DB data connection (e.g., a query table linked to a database), and an error might occur during a refresh operation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>import xlwings as xw\n\n# Connect to the active Excel instance or start a new one\napp = xw.apps.active\n\n# Assume we have a workbook with a data connection\nwb = app.books.active\n\n# Try to refresh all data connections in the workbook\ntry:\n    wb.api.RefreshAll()\nexcept Exception as e:\n    print(f\"Refresh failed with general error: {e}\")\n\n# Check for OLE DB errors after refresh\nole_errors = app.api.OLEDBErrors\n\nif ole_errors.Count > 0:\n    print(f\"Number of OLE DB errors: {ole_errors.Count}\")\n    for i in range(1, ole_errors.Count + 1):\n        error = ole_errors.Item(i)\n        print(f\"Error {i}:\")\n        print(f\" Description: {error.ErrorString}\")\n        print(f\" Error Number: {error.Number}\")\n        print(f\" Native Error Code: {error.Native}\")\n        print(f\" SQL State: {error.SqlState}\")\n        print(f\" Application: {error.ApplicationName}\")\nelse:\n    print(\"No OLE DB errors detected.\")<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The **OLEDBErrors** member of the **Application** object in Excel&apos;s object model represents a collec&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-xlwings-api-reference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3293,"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xlwings.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}