Database Reference
In-Depth Information
When you import an Access object, the entire object is imported as an object with the same
name into the active database. You can't import only selected fields or records. If the active
database already has an object with the same name, Access imports the new object with a
number appended to the end of the name.
Importing from Excel worksheets
Access works seamlessly with Excel. You can import an entire worksheet or a named range
from a worksheet into either a new table (one that is created during the import process) or
an existing table. You can also import specific fields from a worksheet or range.
Excel is a good intermediate format to use when importing information that isn't set up to
import directly into Access. For example, if you want to add or remove fields, combine or
split fields, or use complex mathematical functions to manipulate data before importing it
into Access, Excel is a great place to do it.
Importing from text files
Text files are the common denominator of all document types. Almost every program that
works with words and numbers can generate some kind of text file. Access can import tabu-
lar data (tables and lists) from text files that contain data structured in two ways:
Delimited text file Each record ends with a paragraph mark, and each field in the
table or list is separated from the next by a comma or some other special character,
called a delimiter . If the data in a field includes the delimiting special character, the
entire field must be enclosed in quotation marks. (Some people enclose all fields in
quotation marks to avoid having to locate those containing the special character.)
Fixed-width text ile In every record, the data in a particular field includes the same
number of characters. If the actual data doesn't fill the field, the field is padded with
spaces so that the starting point of the data in the next field is the same number of
characters from the beginning of every record. For example, if the first field contains
12 characters, the second field always starts 13 characters from the beginning of the
record, even if the actual data in the first field is only 4 characters.
Fixed-width text files used to be difficult to import into databases because you had
to carefully count the number of characters in each field and then specify the field
sizes in the database or in the import program. If the length of any field was even
one character off, all records from that point on would be jumbled. That is no longer
a problem with Access, because the Import Text wizard makes importing a fixed-
width text file simple.
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