From John Walkenbach's Excel 2002 Power Programming with VBA, I finally found a way to effectively pull a number from a database that matches criteria using an array formula:

{=SUM((DB_VARIABLE=$CB$51)*(DB_YEAR=CA$5)*(DB_JANVALUES)}

What I was wondering about the array formula is whether there is a way to avoid having to name a separate array for each month, as well as DB_VARIABLE and DB_YEAR, for a total of 14 arrays.

(In 1-2-3, I can use the @DGET function to do this putting the criteria directly into the function and all I have to do is name the database range with column headings in one step.)

Or can anyone think of a better way to obtain the value I want from the database using Excel?