Access™ 2007 Bible

Chapter 16. Working with External Data

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Linking to external data

• Splitting an Access database into programs and data

• Working with linked tables

• Using the Linked Table Manager

• Using code to link to external data sources

• Verifying linked tables

So far, you've worked with data in Access tables found within the current database. In this chapter, you explore the use of data from other types of files. You learn to work with data from database, spreadsheet, HTML, and text-based files. After we describe the general relationship between Access and external data, we explain the major methods of working with external data: linking and importing/exporting.

Note

This chapter uses the Chapter16.accdb database as well as several other files that you will use for linking. If you have not already copied these files onto your machine from the CD, you'll need to do so now.

The data linked or imported into Access applications comes in a bewildering variety of formats. There is no practical way to document every possible type of import or linking operation in a single chapter. Therefore, this chapter discusses the essential steps required to import or link to external data, and gives a few examples demonstrating how these processes are performed in Access 2007, instead of filling page after page with examples that may or may not be relevant to your work.

As you'll soon see, knowledge of the external data format is critical to a successful import or linking operation. You must have some notion of ...