Importing Data into MS Access with ODBC - Establishing a link to a database file

(Page 2 of 6 )

Create a blank mdb file. The new database will have a default name, db1.mdb and it is recommended that you change this name to reflect your application. Here, it is called LinkToImport.mdb. The database is created in the default directory, C:\My Documents. At this point there are no user created objects, except for several utilities needed to create various objects, such as tables, queries, forms, reports, and so forth, as shown in this picture.

Establishing a Link

Now click on File ->Get External Data-> Link Tables...as shown in this picture.

 

This opens up the My Documents folder for browsing, so that you can locate the file. It is quite possible that files may be located in other locations as well. Hence it is advisable that a preliminary search is made to determine the location of the various files. Clicking on the drop-down, Files of type: the various file types that Access can import into the database are displayed as shown.

The different file types supported are shown in the following list. In this tutorial we will be looking at the last item in the list, the ODBC databases.

• Microsoft Access(*.mda; *.mdb; *.mde)
• dBase III, IV and 5 (*.dbf)
• Microsoft Excel (*.xls)
• Exchange()
• HTML documents(*.htm, *.html)
• Outlook()
• Paradox(*.db)
• Text files with several extensions(*.csv, *.txt, *.asc, *.tab)
• ODBC databases

Next: Configuring an ODBC Source >>
 

More Microsoft Access Articles
More By Jayaram Krishnaswamy

Comments On: Importing Data into MS Access with ODBC

· ODBC makes connecting to databases so easy. From legacy text file stored data to...    · You did if we may say two very excellent ASP SQL Server tutorials. One was on,...    · Yes you can import the tables. The tables will be part of your MS Access database...   >>> Post your comment now!