Re: Converting from .MDB Access to PostgreSQL

Bob,
    I just went through this exact process, and am still feeling the
pain of it.  So maybe I can be of some help.  I didn't know about the
pgAdminII conversion wizard and so did this myself with a little java app
that I wrote.  I'd suggest using the wizard
(http://pgadmin.postgresql.org/pgadmin2.php?ContentID=15) it'll make the
first step easier.

    If you run into any issues feel free to ask and I'll do my best to
help out.  Watch out for bad table/column names in your Access database.
Access allows for almost any characters to be used in the table/column names
and Postgres does not, unless you surround them with "".  If you do use
names that need to be quoted they will have to be quoted everywhere.

Rob

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Puff@NLE [mailto:bob@nleaudio.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 4:50 PM
> To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: [GENERAL] Converting from .MDB Access to PostgreSQL
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm somewhat a newbie to databases, but not to Linux or
> Windows.  Have a client that is running
> software on the Win32 platform that is currently using ODBC
> to access .MDB "MS Access database
> files" on a samba fileserver.  They are getting random record
> locking errors, and the software
> vendor is blaming the number of computers, saying that the
> ODBC access to database files is only
> good for a handful of computers, not the 8 that we have.
>
> Their recommendation is to use MS SQL database, and set up
> the entries in the ODBC panel for the
> clients to point to the MS server.  They provide a little
> utility to create and copy the .MDB file
> data to the MS SQL database server.
>
> I want to use PostgreSQL, not MS's product.  I've got the
> server set up, and have the ODBC drivers
> installed on a test client, but now I need to get the data
> from the .MDB files into the PostgreSQL.
>   There are several databases.
>
> What is the most pain-free way one can accomplish this?  I
> think the Access database files are an
> older format, because when I go to open them with MS Access
> 2000, it states that the files need to
> be converted to the new format (which I obviously did not do
> - didn't want to break the app).
>
> I assume there are two distinct functions that need to be done:
>    1. Create the databases, with the appropriate tables and columns
>    2. Move the data within the database.
>
> I did do some searching on the site, but most of the stuff
> didn't quite "click".  Any advice given
> would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!
>
> Bob
>
>
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