I am using SSMA to convert from an Access db to a SQL 2019 DB.
There are some things I need to fix in the access DB so I am trying to figure out whether or not these things can be done via a query in access or you have to use the goofy UI and do everything manually.
So I had a couple of questions about queries in Microsoft Access:
Can you modify the 'required' attribute on a column within a table by using a query?
Can you configure Index (dupes) on a column by using a query?
Can you change validation rules using a query?
Can you create/delete relationships using a query?
Can you change the field length of a column by using a query?
Any examples of any of these would be helpful, when I google for ms access related things all of the content is either related to Access 2007/2010 or its very UI heavy rather than Query heavy.
I am trying to script this because I may have to do this migration several times.
Update: I was able to get most of what i needed figured out..
ALTER TABLE Users ALTER COLUMN Type CHECK(In ("I","U","") Or Is Null);
Still havent found a way to change the 'ValidationRule'.. trying to change it to
In ("I","U","") Or Is Null
Look into the Data Definition Language section of the MS Access SQL Reference, specifically the ALTER TABLE statement, which will cover the majority of your questions.
For example, in response to:
Can you change the field length of a column by using a query?
ALTER TABLE Table1 ALTER COLUMN Field1 TEXT(100)
The above will change the data type of the field Field1 within table Table1 to a text field accommodating 100 characters.
Related
In MS Access, I have a few tables with some column names having spaces in their column names (e.g. Transaction I).
I need to replace the spaces with underscores (e.g. Transaction_ID) using SQL.
Although I'm somewhat familiar with SQL, however, my exposure was in an Oracle environment and all of those queries and functions don't work in MS Access. I am fairly new to MS Access.
I have tried following codes from the posts that I searched, however, to no avail.
alter table EP sp_rename 'Transaction ID' to Transaction_ID
alter table EP rename column 'Transaction ID' to Transaction_ID
Access does not have a built in command "line" option to re-name a column.
(and your example looks to be for SQL Server, and MORE so it looks to be using a library stored procedure function to do this for you. So, that looks to be SQL Server syntax - not MS Access.
If you going to use DDL in Access to re-name a column? You have to create a new column with the desired name, and then move the data to this new column, and then drop the old column.
The so called sql 'ddl' commands in Access actually do quite much follow the SQL standard.
So, before embarking on this road, I would consider to use the built in GUI + table designer. (It will do the dirty work behind the scenes for you).
So, can you use DDL to rename a column? Yes, but you have to do this in 3 steps.
Create the new column.
Copy data from old column to new column
Delete the old column.
Because of indexing, possible relationships and other issues, then one REALLY does want to use the built in table designer + the GUI here.
But, you can use say a procedure (VBA) in Access to do this:
Say we had a REALLY bad column name for City called [The City].
To re-name to City, then we can go:
Sub MyAlter()
' create the new column
CurrentDb.Execute "ALTER TABLE tblHotels ADD COLUMN City TEXT(50)", dbFailOnError
' copy the data
CurrentDb.Execute "UPDATE tblHotels SET City = [The City]", dbFailOnError
' drop the origonal column
CurrentDb.Execute "ALTER TABLE tblHotels DROP COLUMN [The City]", dbFailOnError
End Sub
Just keep in mind that ANY column in Access with spaces (yuk!!) needs to be surrounded with []. This applies to SQL select queries, update queries, insert queries, and of course DDL commands to modify the table structure.
If a one-time deal, then of course simply use access, open the table(s) in question in design mode, and make the changes.
However, if you do for some reason do need to use a procedure, then the above code in a access code module can be used.
Or you could just fire up the query builder, flip to SQL view mode, and type in the above raw sql that way.
(you have to type in each sql command separately - the Access query builder only allows ONE SQL statement at a time.
So you could type in first above SQL, hit "!" to execute, and then do the two additional SQL statements.
MAKE A BACK-UP!!!
And of course any code, any queries, any reports etc. that used the old column name will break. So changing column names in an existing application is a HIGH RISK adventure (you can and will break tons of code, existing forms, and existing reports, and existing SQL queries you have now).
However, if this is a one-time update? Then I would of course just use the table designer. It allows a re-name without a column drop – and it keeps other field settings such as indexes, format etc.
I which above suggested approach makes the most sense will depend on your particular "use" case.
Last but not least? You can use VBA code and the table objects in that code. This approach is probably the best. It does not use SQL DDL, and you have greater control over a lot of features for a given column (required, allow nulls – the list goes on). Most of these settings CAN be set in DDL - but you spend quite a bit of time searching and looking up those settings.
All in all? I would use the table designer if possible here.
I have a query for a report based on an MS Access database (as the program project file). The tables in this database get updated with new fields periodically as new features are added.
We need to be able to support old and new versions of the file for our report, so need to know if there is a way to insert a field into the SQL SELECT query if it does not already exist. (Note: Do not want to create ALTER TABLE type statements, as the field only needs to be added into the result set, not into the table permanently.)
I know you can do something like "" AS [FieldName], but that only applies when you know the field doesn't exist and need to create a blank spot for it (such as when a unioned table does have that field). In this case, the table might have the field so I want to use it if it does, but if it doesn't I want to have it still exist in the query results with a default value.
Any help would be appreciated. (I also know you can force the user to update the file, but that option was stated as "only last resort".)
Thanks,
Chris
I'm trying to create an Update Query in MS Access (2013) to a QuickBooks Database using QODBC.
I need to update the table PriceLevelPerItem. I am trying to update the field in said table called PriceLevelPerItemCustomprice with a value from another table, QueryThreeTable, and a column titled UpdatedPrice.
I need to update the table PriceLevelPerItem where the PriceLevelPerItemItemRefListID matches the value of ItemID from QueryThreeTable and ListID matches the QueryThreeTable.ItemListID (yes I know these are the wrong way around...)
So far this process has been a very annoying trial of many queries and any help would be greatly appreciated
This is what I've been working with:
UPDATE
PriceLevelPerItem
SET
(PriceLevelPerItemCustomPrice = QueryThreeTable.UpdatedPrice)
FROM
QueryThreeTable, PriceLevelPerItem
WHERE
QueryThreeTable.ItemID = PriceLevelPerItem.PriceLevelPerItemItemRefListID
AND
QueryThreeTable.ItemListID = PriceLevelPerItem.ListID;
I think the problem is that you're trying to use a DAO query inside a QODBC query. I think the two use different Data Access engines.
You're going to need to lookup your UpdatedPrice in your QueryThreeTable using DLookup. Or maybe you need to create a DAO loop using QueryThreeTable that then updates values in your QODBC table from there.
Make your QODBC query work without the use of QueryThreeTable and without any joins. Then come up with a way to dynamically create your query. You're resulting SQL should look something like this:
UPDATE
PriceLevelPerItem
SET
PriceLevelPerItemCustomPrice = 150.16
WHERE
PriceLevelPerItem.ListID = '310000-1146238368';
Using SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server MS is there a way to create a delimited string based upon an unknown number of columns per row?
I'm pulling one row at a time from different tables and am going to store them in a column in another table.
A simple SQL query can't do anything like that. You need to specify the fields you are concatenating.
The only method that I'm aware of is to dynamincally build a query for each table.
I don't recall the structure of MSSQL2000, so I won't try to give an exact example, maybe someone else can. But there -are- system tables that contain table defintions. By parsing the contents of those system tables you can dynamically build the necessary query for each source data table.
TSQLthat writes TSQL, however, can be a bit tricky to debug and maintain :) So be careful how you structure everything...
Dems.
EDIT:
Or just do it in your client application.
Does anyone have an idea what this error means or how to solve it? I am using Access 2003 and SQL2005. It comes up when trying to add a record on a particular subform.
[Microsoft][SQL Native Client] Invalid character value for cast specification (#0)
This MS bug report describes the same message, but it is a bug in SQL Server 6.5 that has already been solved.
Solved: Apparently having no PK on the destination table was causing this, it didn't have anything to do with the subform or the query from Access. I wasn't even aware there were tables in this database without PK. Adding PK to the destination table solved it. The strange thing is the same query string that errored when executed via SQL native client, executed through SSMS with no errors. Hope this helps anyone else who has come across that strange message.
Hum, I would check the text box default on the access side. I would also bring up the linked table in design mode, and you want to check the data type that ms-access assumes here. For non supported data types ms-access will generally use a string, and sql server might be wanting something else.
So, check both the Primary key (PK) in main table, and then check the data type used (assumed) in the child table for the foreign key (FK) column. While we are at this, check your expressions used for the child/master link settings in the sub-form control (not the form, not the sub-form, but the sub-form control used in your form that links up these two tables).
Sub forms in access are sensitive if you don’t have a timestamp column in the sql server table. As mentioned check the PK and the FK data types and make sure they match up (just bring up the tables in design mode in ms-access -- you get an error message about the design mode being read only, but just continue on so you can check/view to ensure the data types match up).
So for the child table, you need a PK, a FK, and also a timestamp column (you don’t have to display the TS column in the sub-form, but you need it in the table).
Sub-forms in ms-access are sensitive and often fail if you don’t include a timestamp column in the sql table. (access uses these row version columns to determine if the data been changed).
Is one of your fields in the view calculated/built with the CAST function? In this case, you might not have the right to update/add a value for that field.
Can you execute your view in the MS SQL Studio interface and try to insert a record?
Another cause to this issue is that if you change a table name without alterting the view then the "Dependencies" of that view still remians with the table old name.
Let say I have a table 'A' and a view 'Av' which derives from 'A', and I created a new Table which will be named 'A' and I changed 'A's name to 'A_old' but I didn't executed an ALTER VIEW, so the dependencies of 'Av' still remain on 'A_old' but the view is derives from 'A' and it cuasing this Error in Access when trying to open the view as a linked table
I just spent a day battling this with an Access ADP project that was imported into a new Access 2016 ACCDB file. Initially I figured it was an issue with the application code, but I was getting this keying records directly into the table. Interestingly, the records always got written - it seemed to be the read-back that was triggering the error. Profiling the insert sql and running that from SQL Management Studio worked without any issues.
The table that was causing the problems had a GUID Primary Key. Switching that to an int column resolved the issue.
The SQL database was also littered with a few thousand extended properties which I removed before switching the PK. There was a strong suggestion from the web that these cause problems. The source of that process is documented here: Remove All SQL Extended Properties
I had this problem with Access 2016 trying to update an ODBC linked sQL Server database. Problem was a null value in field used to join the two tables. Eliminating the null value solved the problem
OK I just had this bad experience and it had nothing to do with PK or any of this stuff in my situation. The view that reported this problem in Access was created in SQL Server originally and used a CAST of DATETIME to plain old DATE to get rid of the unneeded time part. Up until today this view had caused 0 issues in Access, but started to generate heartburn just as described above.
So, I generated a Drop/Create script for the MSS view, ran it, relinked the views in Access, and the Access database was happy with the result. All my so-called tables in Access are basically views through links to MSS for reporting. I only have 1 table that actually does changes. Other than that, I do not edit through views in Access.
The message is of course useless as usual but this was my solution in my situation.
Based solely in the message you provided above, it appears that you are trying to set an invalid value to some field or parameter, etc... The message is telling you that it is trying to convert a value into an specific data type but the value is invalid for that data type... makes sense?
Please add more details so we can help you better.