Microsoft® Access® 2010 24-Hour Trainer

18

Creating Tables from External Data

Another very powerful feature in Access is the ability to import data from a multitude of data sources. Access 2010 supports a variety of external data types. For example, a text file in excess of 100,000 records would require hours to enter by hand, one record at a time; fortunately, Access provides wizards to help you import many different types of data in just a few minutes. In Access, data imports into a table can be a simple one-time loading of a list of data into a blank database, or it can be as complex as millions of records from a flat file that need to have additional data cleaning or other manipulation, using temporary tables and multiple queries, before importing the data.

Some examples of external data types that are easily imported into, or exported from, Access follow:

• Access
• Excel
• SQL Server
• Text
• CSV
• XML
• SharePoint
• ODBC

The purpose of providing methods to import data from external sources is to allow data sharing between multiple users, application types, and data formats as quickly and easily as possible. In Access 2010, no programming experience is necessary to import most types of data. The Import Wizard guides you through the import process, providing you with instructions. This lesson is dedicated to discussing how to do simple data imports into a database using Access 2010 for a variety of common data types.

EXTERNAL DATA SOURCES

Access 2010 has built-in tools that enable the import of data and database objects from ...