Create Access table from text file - vba

Question

I need to create an access (2007) table from a text file. I know ahead of time what columns should exist, but from time to time the vendors slip up and submit a text file that contains an incorrect number of columns. So I don't want to specify the columns in advance. I want to load all data as text into whatever columns exist. Then I will do QC.
The columns are pipe delimited and there are over 200 columns per record. There are no column headers, but there is one line of header text for the file, and one line at the end that states how many records there are. There may be anywhere from 1 to over 5,000 records in a text file. Records are identified with CRLF (windows).
Here is what I have so far, and it works (in that it reads the file and places the correct information in the recordset (columns and records), and I can count the number of records), except that the SELECT INTO gives me an error:
Sub OpenTextADO(strFileName As String, strPath As String)
Dim cn As ADODB.Connection
Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset
Dim fld As ADODB.Field
Dim recs As Integer
Dim strRecord As String
Dim strSQL As String
recs = 0
Set cn = New ADODB.Connection
If Right(strFileName, 3) = "txt" Then
'cn.Open "DRIVER={Microsoft Text Driver (*.txt; *.csv)};" & "DBQ=" & strPath & "\" 'need schema.ini file
cn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" & strPath & "\;Extended Properties='text;HDR=No;FMT=Delimited(|)'" 'need schema.ini file
End If
Set rs = New ADODB.Recordset
rs.Open "SELECT * INTO TESTTEXT FROM [" & strFileName & "]", cn, adOpenStatic, adLockOptimistic, adCmdText
'Do Until rs.EOF
' For Each fld In rs.Fields
' strRecord = strRecord & "|" & fld.Value
' Next fld
' strRecord = strRecord & vbCr
' recs = recs + 1
' rs.MoveNext
'Loop
'Debug.Print strRecord
'recs = rs.RecordCount
rs.Close
Set rs = Nothing
MsgBox "Text was opened and there are " & recs & " records in the table."
cn.Close
Set cn = Nothing
End Sub
NOTE: I included both the OLEDB version and the text driver version - they both seem to operate identically. I also created a schema.ini file that looks like this:
[test.txt]
Format=Delimited(|)
ColNameHeader=False
Both drivers seem to need this to desregard column headers, despite the "HDR=No" in the OLEDB version.
The error I get is: "Cannot update. Database or object is read-only".
I appreciate any help.

Answer 1

Could you do a sequential read of the text file, using the count of pipe-delimited fields in the first data line of the file to create a table with the proper number of columns, then just write subsequent lines into that table? I just threw the following together, but it seems to work.
Public Function import_txt_to_db(strFile As String) As Boolean
On Error GoTo ErrHandle
Dim strLine As String
Dim intFileNum As Integer
Dim blnFirstLine As Boolean
blnFirstLine = True
Dim varArray As Variant
intFileNum = FreeFile
Open strFile For Input Access Read As intFileNum
Do While Not EOF(intFileNum)
Line Input #intFileNum, strLine
varArray = Split(strLine, "|")
If blnFirstLine = True Then
'Use count of fields in first line to determine # of columns to create
Dim intColCount As Integer
intColCount = UBound(varArray)
Dim strQry As String
strQry = "CREATE TABLE tblImport ("
Dim intCtr As Integer
For intCtr = 1 To intColCount + 1
strQry = strQry & "[COLUMN_" & intCtr & "] TEXT(255),"
Next intCtr
strQry = Left(strQry, Len(strQry) - 1) & ")" 'get rid of terminal comma
CurrentDb.Execute strQry
blnFirstLine = False
End If
Dim strQry2 As String
strQry2 = "INSERT INTO tblImport VALUES('" & Replace(strLine, "|", "','") & "')"
CurrentDb.Execute strQry2
Loop
Close #intFileNum
import_txt_to_db = True
Exit Function
ErrHandle:
import_txt_to_db = False
End Function
I did a simple test with the folowing five-line text file
Thomas|Jefferson|Virginia
Bill|Clinton|Arkansas
Jimmy|Carter|Georgia
Lyndon|Johnson|Texas
George|Washington|Virginia
After running the code, here's my (simple) table: