Link multiple tables from one database - sql

Question

I have actually this little function working as supposed:
Function createAttached(strTable As String, strPath As String, strBaseTable As String) As Boolean
On Error GoTo CreateAttachedError
Dim tdf As TableDef
Dim strConnect As String
Dim fRetval As Boolean
Dim myDB As Database
DoCmd.SetWarnings False
Set myDB = CurrentDb
Set tdf = myDB.CreateTableDef(strTable)
With tdf
.Connect = ";DATABASE=" & strPath
.SourceTableName = strBaseTable
End With
myDB.TableDefs.Append tdf
myDB.TableDefs.Refresh
fRetval = True
DoCmd.SetWarnings True
CreateAttachedExit:
createAttached = fRetval
Exit Function
CreateAttachedError:
If Err = 3110 Then
Resume CreateAttachedExit
Else
If Err = 3011 Then
Resume Next
Else
If Err = 3012 Then
Set tdf = myDB.TableDefs(strTable)
tdf.Connect = ";DATABASE=" & strPath
tdf.RefreshLink
fRetval = True
GoTo CreateAttachedExit
End If
End If
End If
End Function
This code works fine, I can call the function as many times as I want to add links to tables from another database. However, I have about 30 tables to import from the same database and this script restarts from scratch everytime I call it. Because the database is located on another server, it takes about 1 min to link the 30 tables.
Is there anything I could do with that function to make it work faster when I need to link multiple tables from the same database? I would like it to work with multiple strTable and strBaseTable in parameters instead of one (maybe arrays?), but I don't know how to do this.
Thank you.

Answer 1

You can loop through the tabledefs collection in the external database or use a table of tables that lists all the tables to be connected and the external database.
Dim db As Database
Dim ThisDb As Database
Set ThisDb = CurrentDB
sDb = "z:\docs\test.accdb"
Set db = OpenDatabase(sDb)
For Each tdf In db.TableDefs
''Connect
If Left(tdf.Name, 4) <> "MSys" Then
If IsNull(DlookUp("Name","MsysObjects","Type In (1,4,5,6) And Name='" _
& tdf.Name & "'")) Then
DoCmd.TransferDatabase acLink, "Microsoft Access", _
sDb, acTable, tdf.Name, tdf.Name
Else
If ThisDb.TableDefs(tdf.Name).connect <> vbNullString Then
ThisDb.TableDefs(tdf.Name).connect = ";DATABASE=" & sDb
ThisDb.TableDefs(tdf.Name).RefreshLink
End If
End If
End If
Next
A table of tables would work in a similar fashion in that you can select the database (select distinct) from the table and loop through that recordset attaching the tables in a further selection (select table where database ...)

Answer 2

What you could also do is set up the database connect in a different sub as well as the database disconnect (which I might be missing here?).
So then the code that calls this script normally (I assume you have a loop) will look like this:
call function/sub that opens the connection to DATABASE= strPath
your loop that calls Function createAttached
call function/sub that closes the connection to DATABASE= strPath
That way you avoid the repetitive (usually time consuming) connection to the external database