Getting to Know Microsoft Access, Part 10 - Exchanging Data with Others
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To help speed up application development, Access provides tools that allow you to exchange Access objects and data with other Access databases, and other database systems such as SQL databases and dBase.
To copy objects from one Access database to another you first copy the objects by right-clicking them. Then, you open another instance of Access, tile the Windows, and then paste the object wherever you’d like it to be in the new database. You can also drag-and-drop an object from one Access database to another.
You can also import or link data from one Access database to another or from another type of database to Access. Importing is best used when you don’t need the other database application, while linking is best used if you will need the other database application. To import data, choose the File | Get External Data menu option; choose the ‘Import’ option. Select the database file that contains the object(s) you want to import; click import. The Import Objects dialog box allows you to choose which objects you wish to import. Choose ‘OK’ when you are done. If the tables you are importing contain Lookup Fields you’ll want to make sure to import the tables those fields refer to as well.
You’ll want to set import options before you import your data. To do so, click ‘Options’ in the Import Objects dialog box. In the options dialog that follows you can choose whether to import other table features such as relationships, menus and toolbars, and the import/export settings for the source database. You can also set whether to import both the specified tables and the data or just the table definitions. Finally, if you are importing queries, you can decide whether to import just the queries themselves, or the records produced when those queries are run.
As noted, you can also choose to link Access tables instead of importing them. Linking is both good and bad. It’s good because it reduces redundancy by keeping the data where it belongs (in the source database), but bad because it requires you move the linked database whenever you move the destination database. To link your source database tables to your destination database simple choose the File | Get External Data menu option and select the Link Tables menu option. Finally, select the database and the table objects you wish to link to your current database.
As indicated, you can also import from or link to other database types such as Paradox and dBase, Visual FoxPro, and Microsoft SQL Server. To do so, you’ll first need to have the ISAM drivers (for Paradox and dBase) or the appropriate connection to an ODBC data source defined (for SQL Server and FoxPro). To get the ISAM drivers visit the Microsoft technical support website. Other than that, importing data from a dBase or Paradox database uses the same method as for importing data from other Access databases.
If the database you are importing from is not compatible with Access you can always choose to import your data as a delimited text file. Most database types will allow you to export data as delimited text. When you are ready to import into Access, select ‘Text Files’ in the Files of type box in the Import window dialog. Then, locate the text file you want to import and click ‘Next.’ Access will validate the imported data and then ask you if it is what you want. Once you have verified that it is, Access imports the data.
Next: Sharing your Data with Others >>
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