Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> As I understand it, M$ Access is just a graphical frontend for the M$ 
> Jet engine, which actually comes with Windows itself. Does that mean I 
> can configure an ODBC connection to an Access database, even though I 
> don't have access?
> 
> More generally, does anybody here know how to work ODBC?
> 

There are a bunch of options to open a .mdb without MS Access.

MS Access just gives you a pretty front end - it can be useful in 
creating a new database and tables, but isn't required.  In fact, I have 
not used MS Access in several years, tho just about all of our data is 
in .mdb files.


I personally stay from ODBC because it requires a setup on each computer.

I usually access the file directly through code.


small example in .NET - forgive the line wraps
******************************
Private Function GetSCIDandUTMTable(ByVal databasePath As String) As 
System.Data.DataTable

	Dim myDatabaseConnection As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection

	myDatabaseConnection = New 
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection("provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data 
Source= " & databasePath)

	myDatabaseConnection.Open()

	Dim queryString As String

	queryString = "select"
	queryString &= " SCID"
	queryString &= ",WorldX"
	queryString &= ",WorldY"
	queryString &= " from"
	queryString &= " myInfoStore"

	Dim myDataAdapter As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter = Nothing
	Dim myDataSet As New System.Data.DataSet
	Dim myDataView As System.Data.DataView
	Dim myDataTable As System.Data.DataTable


	myDataAdapter = New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter(queryString, 
myDatabaseConnection)
	myDataAdapter.Fill(myDataSet, "MyData")

	myDatabaseConnection.Close()

	myDataView = New System.Data.DataView(myDataSet.Tables("MyData"))
	myDataTable = myDataView.Table

	Return myDataTable

End Function
************************************************



In my case we don't keep one large dataset, we have a separate .mdb for 
each job that we work on - so literally hundreds of .mdb files.

Our tools are designed to allow the sure to easily select the .mdb file 
they are working with.





Tom

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