Transferring records

[Geert De Reu]

I have 2 problems:
1. In a project a have to transfer data from (non-relational) Q & A (Dos
version) tot a relational MsAcces-Database. Are there any tools that can
make this transfer without too much difficulties.
2. I know someone how has made a database in MS-Access but he diden't know
anything about relational databases now he has put in all his data in a
'non'-relational way in a database. Consequence: some data are 3 or more
times in the database which it makes it extremely difficult to make changes.
Do there exists tools to do this kind of things?

Thank you very much in advance,

Geert De Reu
geert...@planetinternet.be

[Lisa Nelson]

I would look very seriously at Lotus Approach instead of Access. It is much
easier to use and does not have the limitations that Access has. Unless of
course your only choice is Access.

Lisa
Partial CD
Power User running OS/2 V4.0!!
No wimpy MS product for me!!

[UW]

The following is a quote from a review performed by the people at CNET. The
full review can be found at:
http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/Compare/Officesuites/ss03e.html

"On the flip side, SmartSuite's Approach database earns no raves from us.
While it integrates well with 1-2-3 and, thanks to SmartSuite's Internet
punch, does a better job than ever of publishing to the Web (via jDoc),
Approach lags behind Access 97 in the ease-of-use department."

It would also be very interested to find out exactly what the limitations of
Access are. After developing in Access for a number of years, it would be
nice to know what my limitations are. I can honestly say, I haven't found
too many yet. The only limitations that have come up would apply to all
desktop databases. In other words, yes there are applications that require
a real database on the backend, but Lotus Approach would not be it.

Please do not take this as a knock on Lotus Approach, I have had very
little exposure to it, and am unqualified to comment on its good and bad
points. However, Lisa's comments, to me, seem to be out of place.

Now to awnser the question:

I do not know if Access can import directly from Q & A . What is the file
format for Q & A? I know that many of the DOS databases stored there data
in the standard DBase format. If this is the case, then you can link
directly to the data files with Access.

In either situation, If I were you, I would attempt to bring the data into
access in its current format/structure and then use queries, code whatever
it takes to manipulate into the desired relational format.

If you can't link to the data directly from Access, you will probably have
to export the current data to text files and then import the text files into
Access.

Once you have the data in Access or any other database, you can then
normalize it. Create Unique record queries to extract out single instances
of multiple entries. Then use make table queries to create new tables with
the desired data. In the past I have found this process of attempting to
normalize data that is not normalized very tedious. The biggest problem is
inconsistent data entry. Where data that is really the same has been
entered differently because of misspelling or some other reason. Because of
this, it can really help to have someone that really knows the data sit down
and clean it up before you start.

Good Luck
Jim Gray

Lisa Nelson wrote in message ...

[Tonya Thomas]

I agree that your only real chore for transferring your info from the DOS app to
Access is to determine the original DOS file type format, for which Access is
very adept at being able to import a great variety of file formats. If nothing
else the DOS info could be saved in ASCII text file format and then imported
into Access.

There is also a few very handy table analyzing wizards in Access that will begin
to help make "non-relational" data tables more in condition ("Normalized") to
begin creating the relationships. You may want to try the Table Analyzer Wizard
for starters...

Good luck!

Geert De Reu wrote:

> I have 2 problems:
> 1. In a project a have to transfer data from (non-relational) Q & A (Dos
> version) tot a relational MsAcces-Database. Are there any tools that can
> make this transfer without too much difficulties.
> 2. I know someone how has made a database in MS-Access but he diden't know
> anything about relational databases now he has put in all his data in a
> 'non'-relational way in a database. Consequence: some data are 3 or more
> times in the database which it makes it extremely difficult to make changes.
> Do there exists tools to do this kind of things?
>
> Thank you very much in advance,
>
> Geert De Reu
> geert...@planetinternet.be

--

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonya V. Thomas
tvt...@usa.net

[Leejen]

Hi,

I don't wish to start a new thread on this, but briefly, have you ever tried
Access97 with about half a million records onwards?

As to the original question about tools available, have you tried to search
for specific tools, such as searching for ACCESS TOOLS?

Regards
Leigh

UW wrote in message <77ir75$sau$1...@nntp6.u.washington.edu>...

>The following is a quote from a review performed by the people at CNET.
The
>full review can be found at:
>http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/Compare/Officesuites/ss03e.html
>

[deleted]

>
>It would also be very interested to find out exactly what the limitations
of
>Access are. After developing in Access for a number of years, it would be
>nice to know what my limitations are. I can honestly say, I haven't found
>too many yet. The only limitations that have come up would apply to all
>desktop databases. In other words, yes there are applications that require
>a real database on the backend, but Lotus Approach would not be it.
>

[deleted]