External data is data that is stored outside of Excel, in databases created in Microsoft Office Access or Microsoft SQL Server, for example.

Importing the data into Excel is a snap, but did you know that you can filter and sort the external data before bringing it into Excel, limiting how much data you import?

And if the information in the external data ever changes, you can always refresh the data in Excel to keep it up to date.

To learn more about this course, read the overview information or the table of contents in the left column. When you're done reading this page, click Next to start the first lesson.

To learn about other ways to import external data, see the following courses:

• Import data: Import text files into Excel
• Import data: Import external data into Excel