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Importing and Linking Data

You can certainly build all your tables, design queries, forms, and reports, and then enter from scratch all the data into your empty tables. However, in many cases, you'll have some of the data you need lying around in other files. For example, you might have a customer list in a spreadsheet or a text file, but your list of products might be in another non-Access database file. Microsoft Access 2010 provides tools to help you bring the data into your new application.

Although you can use Access 2010 as a self-contained database and application system, one of its primary strengths is that it allows you to work with many kinds of data in other databases, in spreadsheets, in text files, or in Microsoft SharePoint lists. In addition to using data in your local Access 2010 database, you can import (copy in) or link (connect to) data that's in text files, spreadsheets, other Access databases, dBASE, Microsoft SharePoint lists, and any other SQL database that supports the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) software standard.

In this tutorial:

  1. Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)
  2. Creating a Data Source to Link to an ODBC Database
  3. Importing vs. Linking Database Files
  4. Importing Data and Databases
  5. Importing SQL Tables
  6. Importing Access Objects
  7. Importing Spreadsheet Data
  8. Importing a Spreadsheet
  9. Importing Text Files
  10. Modifying Imported Tables
  11. Linking Files
  12. Linking Access Tables
  13. Linking dBASE Files
  14. Linking Text and Spreadsheet Files
  15. Linking SQL Tables
  16. Modifying Linked Tables