RE: Need Help with 813-MDB File - Berman, Mikhail - com.mysql.lists.mysql

9 messages in com.mysql.lists.mysqlRE: Need Help with 813-MDB File

From	Sent On	Attachments
David Blomstrom	29 Mar 2005 20:28
Daniel Kasak	29 Mar 2005 20:35
J.R. Bullington	29 Mar 2005 20:38
David Blomstrom	29 Mar 2005 21:22
Daniel Kasak	29 Mar 2005 21:26
Rhino	30 Mar 2005 06:09
Berman, Mikhail	30 Mar 2005 06:28
David Blomstrom	30 Mar 2005 07:25
Tim Hayes	30 Mar 2005 10:39

Subject:	RE: Need Help with 813-MDB File
From:	Berman, Mikhail (mber...@ivesinc.com)
Date:	03/30/2005 06:28:43 AM
List:	com.mysql.lists.mysql

Is there a description of tables anywhere on CD-ROM for Access database.

Mikhail

----- Original Message ----- From: "David Blomstrom" <davi...@yahoo.com> To: <mys...@lists.mysql.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 11:29 PM Subject: Need Help with 813-MDB File

I acquired a CD-ROM that lists many thousands of animal species. The main file is a 813-MB MDB file. I'm not sure if it's a spreadsheet or database, but it's apparently designed to work with Microsoft Access, which I THINK is a spreadsheet. (I don't have it.)

Access is *not* a spreadsheet, it's a database. I don't have it either but I've used it.

I have just enough memory to open the file in WordPad, but it doesn't do any good because much of the data consists of unintelligible characters.

Anyway, I need to figure out a way to import this monster into MySQL. Are you aware of any freeware programs that can open up files designed for Access? Is there a way to convert a MDB file directly into a csv file, which could then be imported into MySQL?

Apparently, this is simple to do if you have Access; I believe you can just do an Export to CSV (or other formats) within Access.

If you don't have Access, it could get somewhat more complex depending on what tools you have. I was curious about your question so I did a Google newsgroup search using these three terms: export MDB CSV and got lots of hits. Some of them talked about ways to read MDB files without having Access, with Perl for example. So I would suggest that you do a similar search, perhaps adding in some additional keywords that reflect the tools/languages you do have, to find out which ways are available to you.

I'll probably eventually break it into sections. At the very least, I'll probably divide it between vertebrates (which I'll use the most) and invertebrates.

I have no idea if that can be done without Access, let alone how to do it.