Access 97 import of *.dat files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Devra Komendanchik
  • Start date Start date
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Devra Komendanchik

Can not import *.dat file extensions through Access 97.
It does not interrupt the carriage return character and
data is in one long stream. Excel 97 does interpret the
*.dat files correctly, but I would like to automate the
import process and not have to go through Excel to convert
and then import to Access 97. Even if I change the
extension to *.txt Access 97 still does not interpret it
correctly. Does anyone have the answer?

Thank you,
Devra
 
what kind of file is a dat file?
i don't have the capability to imporot dat files into access
 
Hi Carol,

".dat" doesn't refer to any one format or family of formats, unlike
extensions such as .mdb, .csv or .dbf. Rather, many applications use the
..dat extension for their own data files, in whatever format the
designers thought appropriate. Many .dat files are text files of one
kind or another, but others can use custom binary formats.

what kind of file is a dat file?
i don't have the capability to imporot dat files into access
Click to expand...
 
thanks
John Nurick said:
Hi Carol,

".dat" doesn't refer to any one format or family of formats, unlike
extensions such as .mdb, .csv or .dbf. Rather, many applications use the
.dat extension for their own data files, in whatever format the
designers thought appropriate. Many .dat files are text files of one
kind or another, but others can use custom binary formats.
Click to expand...
 
-----Original Message-----
Hi Devra,

Sometimes this happens because the records in the .dat file are
separated by something other than the standard Windows line break, which
consists of a carriage return (hexadecimal 0D) followed by a linefeed
(0A).

To check this, open the file in a hex editor (if you don't have one
there are some free ones available, e.g.
http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32 ..htm and
http://www.expertcomsoft.com/download.htm



Can not import *.dat file extensions through Access 97.
It does not interrupt the carriage return character and
data is in one long stream. Excel 97 does interpret the
*.dat files correctly, but I would like to automate the
import process and not have to go through Excel to convert
and then import to Access 97. Even if I change the
extension to *.txt Access 97 still does not interpret it
correctly. Does anyone have the answer?

Thank you,
Devra
Click to expand...

--
John Nurick [Microsoft Access MVP]

Please respond in the newgroup and not by email.
.
John,
Click to expand...

I have ultra edit and I checked the .dat file in the hex
mode of the editor and it does have the windows carriage
return of OD OA of which you speak. Access 97 will not
interpret them properly. Any other suggestions?
 
-----Original Message-----
Hi Devra,

Sometimes this happens because the records in the .dat file are
separated by something other than the standard Windows line break, which
consists of a carriage return (hexadecimal 0D) followed by a linefeed
(0A).

To check this, open the file in a hex editor (if you don't have one
there are some free ones available, e.g.
http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32 ..htm and
http://www.expertcomsoft.com/download.htm



Can not import *.dat file extensions through Access 97.
It does not interrupt the carriage return character and
data is in one long stream. Excel 97 does interpret the
*.dat files correctly, but I would like to automate the
import process and not have to go through Excel to convert
and then import to Access 97. Even if I change the
extension to *.txt Access 97 still does not interpret it
correctly. Does anyone have the answer?

Thank you,
Devra
Click to expand...

--
John Nurick [Microsoft Access MVP]

Please respond in the newgroup and not by email.
.
John,
Click to expand...

What finally worked for us was we create a blank .txt
file, perform the Get of the .dat into that .txt file from
the FTP site and then import using the .txt file.

Thanks for the help!
Devra
 
What finally worked for us was we create a blank .txt
file, perform the Get of the .dat into that .txt file from
the FTP site and then import using the .txt file.
Click to expand...

I don't quite see how this could have made a difference, unless you were
trying to import the data via ftp (which AFAIK doesn't work in any
version of Access) instead of downloading the file to a local or LAN
drive and importing the data from there.
 
I had that problem where it really looked like that line feed was the
problem, when actually there was some binary data in the file.
Maybe ftp-ing the file removed that bad data.
 
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