How do I pass a string variable to the web.contents argument of Power Query (Get & Transform)?

[QuinnE]

Hello,

I am using Get & Transform in a VBA routine to get the contents of a webpage that I want to later parse. The content is bills from our state legislature and how the legislators voted. Each Bill has its own page, so I want to build the string according to the bill number and use the string variable to get the contents. Below is the code I am trying to use. The first section is the code, where you can see the string variable is not resolving. The second part is when I recorded a macro using the same exact string, which works fine. I'm not real good at determining the format for strings, so if you could guide me, that would be great.

Sub GetBillInfoFromWeb()
'
' Macro3 Macro
'

'
Dim BillNum As String
Dim WebAddress As String
[COLOR=rgb(250, 197, 28)]WebAddress[/COLOR] = "https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2023/legislation/"
Dim RowNum As Integer
Dim ColNum As Integer
Dim scratch As String

RowNum = 4
Sheets("LegislatureVotes").Select
BillNum = "Start"

Do Until BillNum = ""
BillNum = Cells(RowNum, 1).Value2
WebAddress = WebAddress & BillNum & "/"

    Sheets("Scratchpad").Select
    ActiveWorkbook.Queries.Add Name:="Table 0", Formula:= _
        "let" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents([COLOR=rgb(250, 197, 28)]webaddress[/COLOR]))," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Data0 = Source{0}[Data]," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Data0,{{""Column1"", type text}, {""Column2"", type date}, {""Column3"", type text}, {""Column4"", type text}})" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "in" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"""
    With ActiveSheet.ListObjects.Add(SourceType:=0, Source:= _
        "OLEDB;Provider=Microsoft.Mashup.OleDb.1;Data Source=$Workbook$;Location=""Table 0"";Extended Properties=""""" _
        , Destination:=Range("$A$1")).QueryTable
        .CommandType = xlCmdSql
        .CommandText = Array("SELECT * FROM [Table 0]")
        .RowNumbers = False
        .FillAdjacentFormulas = False
        .PreserveFormatting = True
        .RefreshOnFileOpen = False
        .BackgroundQuery = True
        .RefreshStyle = xlInsertDeleteCells
        .SavePassword = False
        .SaveData = True
        .AdjustColumnWidth = True
        .RefreshPeriod = 0
        .PreserveColumnInfo = True
        .ListObject.DisplayName = "Table_0"
        .Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
    End With
    Selection.ListObject.QueryTable.Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
    Loop
End Sub

Sub Macro6()
'
' Macro6 Macro
'

'
    ActiveWorkbook.Queries.Add Name:="Table 0", Formula:= _
        "let" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents([COLOR=rgb(250, 197, 28)]""https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2023/legislation/H0001/""[/COLOR]))," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Data0 = Source{0}[Data]," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Data0,{{""Column1"", type text}, {""Column2"", type date}, {""Column3"", type text}, {""Column4"", type text}})" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "in" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"""
    With ActiveSheet.ListObjects.Add(SourceType:=0, Source:= _
        "OLEDB;Provider=Microsoft.Mashup.OleDb.1;Data Source=$Workbook$;Location=""Table 0"";Extended Properties=""""" _
        , Destination:=Range("$A$1")).QueryTable
        .CommandType = xlCmdSql
        .CommandText = Array("SELECT * FROM [Table 0]")
        .RowNumbers = False
        .FillAdjacentFormulas = False
        .PreserveFormatting = True
        .RefreshOnFileOpen = False
        .BackgroundQuery = True
        .RefreshStyle = xlInsertDeleteCells
        .SavePassword = False
        .SaveData = True
        .AdjustColumnWidth = True
        .RefreshPeriod = 0
        .PreserveColumnInfo = True
        .ListObject.DisplayName = "Table_0"
        .Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
    End With
    Selection.ListObject.QueryTable.Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
End Sub

 

[John_w]

Referring to this line in Macro6 (without the colour tags):

    ActiveWorkbook.Queries.Add Name:="Table 0", Formula:= _
        "let" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents(""https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2023/legislation/H0001/""))," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Data0 = Source{0}[Data]," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Data0,{{""Column1"", type text}, {""Column2"", type date}, {""Column3"", type text}, {""Column4"", type text}})" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "in" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"""

Note how the URL is embedded in a string and surrounded by two pairs of double quotes. Each pair of embedded double quotes resolves to one double quote in the final string, to give:

    Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents("https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2023/legislation/H0001/")),

Therefore you want:

    ActiveWorkbook.Queries.Add Name:="Table 0", Formula:= _
        "let" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents(""" & webaddress & """))," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Data0 = Source{0}[Data]," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Data0,{{""Column1"", type text}, {""Column2"", type date}, {""Column3"", type text}, {""Column4"", type text}})" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "in" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"""

Explanation: in " Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents(""" & WebAddress & """)),"

" Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents(""" is a string with an embedded double quote at the end

and """))," is a string with an embedded double quote at the start and we concatenate WebAddress between the two strings.

 

[QuinnE]

I ended up building the entire formula string like this and it seems to be working.

QFormula = "let" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents(""" & WebAddress & """))," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "Data0 = Source{0}[Data]," & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Data0,{{""Column1"", type text}, {""Column2"", type date}, {""Column3"", type text}, {""Column4"", type text}})" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "in" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "    #""Changed Type"""

    Sheets("Scratchpad").Select
    ActiveWorkbook.Queries.Add Name:="Table 0", Formula:=QFormula

 

[Mario_R]

Hello. Let's see if the following proposal works for you:

Sample_1.xlsm
\________________________/​

Sub Macro_9()
Dim iRow&, Url$
iRow = ActiveCell.Row
If Cells(iRow, "B") = "" Or iRow = 1 Then Exit Sub
Url = Cells(iRow, "B"): If Not IsNumeric(Right(Url, 1)) Then Url = Left(Url, Len(Url) - 1)
Url = "https://legislature.idaho.gov/sessioninfo/2023/legislation/" & Url
ThisWorkbook.FollowHyperlink Url
End Sub