This program not only allows its users to be able export the data from the database to other programs such as Microsoft Word, but also allows them from a text document to a database in . In this way, they can add additional information to your worksheets in the calculation software.
To incorporate from a file into the program can be done in two different ways, either importing the filethis in case you want one editable copy of data or simply through a bonding for those cases where you only want see the most recent source data and do not want to change or edit.
Therefore, users have the possibility to perform this procedure of two different wayseach of them will be applied depending on the needs of the same. That is why here we are going to show you how you can start import or link data from a text document to AccessFor this, follow in detail everything that we will teach you below.
What text document formats can I link to or import into an Access database?
In the case of text files they contain raw readable characters, as they are numbers, special characters What tabs, line feeds, and letters. In the case of Microsoft Access allows the use of some supported formats with your system as they are: ..csv, .tab, .txt, .asc. If what you are looking for is to use a text file as source file to link or import, It is important to take into account the following:
All content found in the source file must be completely organized so that the data import and link wizards can separate the content into recordsets and for each of these records split into a collection of fieldsthis means that divide the information into rows and columns. When a Text file it’s found properly organized can belong to the type “Delimited Files” either “Fixed width file”.
So that you can understand this a little more, here we explain each one of them:
delimited files
delimited files is where each of the registers appears on a different line and fields are separated by a single characterthis is known as delimiter. Note that this can be any character as long as it does not appear in field valuesas they are: semicolon (;), space, tab, comma (,), period (.), among many others.
fixed width files
The fixed width files are those where each record appears on a separate line and the width of each field remains uniform across records. To better understand this, an example would be:
The first field of Registration will always have seven characters longfor the second record the length will always be 12 charactersand so on for the other records. If the actual values of length vary from record to record then these values they will not reach the required width to be padded with trailing spaces.
What are the most important things to consider before linking data from a text file to Access?
When this type of data imports, Access has as purpose create a copy of the data in the database destination without having to alter origin. When the procedure is carried out, you have the opportunity to select which objects you want link or importin this way you can control the way in which the transfer tables and queries and in the same way Indicate if there are relationships between the tables.
However, these procedures are executed with the purpose of store some data or all the data found in a Text file in a database of Microsoft Access. This process can be done by inserting all that information either to a existing database or a new one. In this way, the user can only see the information or even be able to manipulate it either by editing its content.
When this procedure is executed, the user can specify how they want it to be arranged. the source fileas well as if you want create a table or append the data to an existing table.
It is also important that when executing this process the following aspects can be taken into account:
- When one is made data binding many of them are usually in a format that Access does not recognize, and such data is very important to use in the program database. If this happens you can export the source data as a text file and then import the content of the text file to an Access table.
- Generally, users make use of Access to manage data, but the data in text format are usually received from different programs, for this you must import data at regular intervals and so expedite the import processthis will allow you to save labor and time.
Learn step by step how to import and link data from a text document to Microsoft Access
It is important to mention that both the process of import and link are executed differently, both are very simple to perform although it can be considered like a bit lengthy procedure. That is why here we are going to teach you step by step how to import or link data from a text document to Microsoft Excel.
To do this, follow each of these methods:
to import
The first method that we are going to teach you is about import data from a text document into Access, note that when importing the user has the opportunity to edit said informationso this method is used when you want to start work such data in this database program.
In order to do this, you need to follow each of these steps:
Prepare the source file
The first step is prepare the source file for this you must open the source text file in a text editor how can he be Memo pad.
Next you must review the content of the source text file and execute one of the following actions that we will teach you:
- Delimited or fixed width: Here you must make sure that the file consistently respects each of the formats. In the event that it is delimited, you must identify the delimiter. Now if he himself has a field of fixed widthyou must ensure that each of the fields has the same width in each record.
- Text qualifiers: In the case of delimited files, they can contain field values that are enclosed in single or double quotes.
- Number of fields: Source field numbers cannot be greater than 255, this is because Microsoft Access it does not support more than 255 fields in a table.
- Skip records and values: It is used when you are interested in only part of the Text file, to do this, the source file is edited before start the import procedure. Keep in mind that once it has started, you can no longer skip records.
- Strange characters: Here you must review all the data and remove those additional characters such as inline feeds, carriage returns and tabs.
- Blank lines and fields: It is applied in the case that they are wanted remove all unnecessary blank rows in the fileon many occasions blank fields are inserted that are not necessary. To add the records to an existing table, you must make sure that the corresponding field of the board accept new valuesotherwise they cannot be added.
- Type of data: If you want to avoid errors during the import, you must be absolutely sure that each source field contains the same data type on each line. The program in these cases examines what they are the first 25 rows of a file in order to determine the type of data contained in the table. Therefore, in the first 25 lines it is recommended not to mix values with different data types in the fields.
- Field names: For the delimited text filesif it does not include what they are the names of the fieldsthen it is a very good alternative to place them in the first row. During the import process the user has the opportunity to specify that Access treats the values in the first row of the fields as the field name.
Once the necessary steps have been taken at this point, the following will be close the source file if it is open. Yes source file is kept open some may be generated data conversion problems or errors during the procedure.
Start the import process
Once the procedure is prepared, the next thing is to start it, for this you must open the access database where are they going to include the data to be imported, at this point you can use a existing database or just open a new database to insert them there. Before beginning this process it is important that you choose if you want the data to be saved in a new or existing table.
To do this, keep these points in mind:
- Create a new table: By saving the data in a new table, Access creates a table and adds the imported data to that tablein the case that a table already exists with the name that has been selectedthen the program overwrites the contents of the imported data table.
- Append an existing table: Now if the data is added to a existing table, then the import process appends the data to the specified table.
After this, the operation begins to be carried out, but it is important to take into account that on many occasions these procedures fail for different reasons, either because source data do not match the structure configurations and fields of the destination tables.
In order to avoid these possible import errors, you need to review the following aspects of the table in Design view:
- First row: The first thing will be to look at the first row of the source text file, here you must ensure if it does not contain field names, you should also see that the data types and position of each column match that of the corresponding field in the table. For delimited files, if the first row contains column headersthen it is not necessary that the order of columns and fields match.
However, in cases of the data types and names of each column if they must exactly match those of the corresponding field, this will prevent generate some error. When import fixed-width text files, this program Microsoft won’t give you the option use the values of the first row as field names.
Let’s see:
- Additional or missing fields: It is possible that one or several fields do not appear in the destination table, for this you must add them before they are start the import process. Now if the destination table contains fields that do not exist in the source fileyou won’t need to remove them from the table as long as values are accepted…
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