asked on

Retrieve Data with VBA Access

Hi Experts,

Let me start off by saying that I have not touched Access and VBA for 5 years, asI have re-focused on PHP/MySQL.

I need to transfer from Access to MySQL, but the previous developer poorly structured the db. For example, each record can have one to three different properties. So, instead of linked tables, they used Memo fields and the data looks like:

id  name   properties
====================
1   chief    prop 1
                  prop 2
                  prop 3
2   mech   prop 1
                  prop 2

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From table view, when I copy and paste into Excel, I end up with 5 rows, instead of 2.

With VBA (unless there's a faster way), I'm hoping to replace all carriage returns with commas, and end up with the following csv:

id  name   properties
====================
1,   chief,    "prop 1, prop 2, prop 3"
2,   mech,   "prop 1, prop 2"

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I know this isn't linked tables neither, but at least it will be importable to mySQL, then I can use PHP to work with the properties as there are only 3 possible properties.

My VBA so far is below, which I combined from Google, but I ghet User type not defined for ADODB. I think I need to add a reference to ADODB through some menu option?

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Sub cmdInterests_Click()

    Dim con As New adodb.Connection
    Dim rs As New adodb.Recordset
    Set con = CurrentProject.Connection
    
    'Dim rs As Recordset
    'Set rs = Recordset
    
    Dim sql As String
    sql = "SELECT * FROM TBL_DICE_Factorial_Analysis"
    
    Set rs = con.Execute(sql)
    
    rs.MoveFirst
    Do While Not rs.EOF
        Print rs.Fields("ID")
        rs.MoveNext
        
    Loop
        
    rs.Close
    

End Sub

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PatHartman

If you post an actual copy of the table, we can see better how the data is stored and can be more helpful on offering a solution.

To properly normalize the data, you don't want a comma separated string, you actually want a second table with 1-3 rows for each row in the main table.

Export the table to a .csv or .xlsx file that we can work with. If it is very large, cut it down to a thousand records. The code will depend on how consistently formatted the multiple lines are.

PS - copy and paste is almost always the wrong method to transfer data between Access and Excel. You may find that simply exporting using the TransferText or TransferSpreadsheet methods (you can do these using the right-click menu without code also) may actually solve the problem without code.

Bitsqueezer

Hi,

yes, in the VBA editor select "Tools" - "References", there you must add a reference to "Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 6.x Library" (in Windows XP or lower it is 2.8).

Your code is more or less showing the DAO method to open a recordset. Usually you use DAO in Access, ADO is not needed. So I would recommend, just for this job, to use DAO instead which would be slightly different (and you would not need to set a reference):

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Sub cmdInterests_Click()

    Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
    Dim sql As String
    sql = "SELECT * FROM TBL_DICE_Factorial_Analysis"
    
    Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(sql)
    
    rs.MoveFirst
    Do While Not rs.EOF
        Print rs.Fields("ID")
        rs.MoveNext
        
    Loop

    rs.Close
End Sub

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Cheers,

Christian

APD Toronto

ASKER

Here is the Excel export.

As you'll see record 1 starts on Row 1 (good), but record 2 startson Row 4; Rec 3 on Row 7; and so on... The issue is Columns EFG, as in Access they are Memo fields, then separated by carriage return.
noc_factorial.xlsx

PatHartman

Did you create the export using the method I suggested?

Right click on table name. Choose Export/Excel

Bitsqueezer

Hi,

if you use the VBA loop you could copy the Memo text into a string variable and then use the Replace function to replace the vbCrLf to a comma string to get the output you want. You could open a text file and write the values of the records into that file using the Open and Print# commands.

Cheers,

Christian

APD Toronto

ASKER

Christian, the code helped a bit, but now I get the Print method is not supported. When I try to output it to a textbox, I get that the Length property (which I cannot find) is too short. Essentially, I'm trying to build my own csv string

My code now

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Sub cmdInterests_Click()

    Dim rs As DAO.Recordset
    Dim sql As String
    sql = "SELECT * FROM TBL_DICE_Factorial_Analysis"
    
    Set rs = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset(sql)
    
    Dim txt As String
    txt = ""
    
    rs.MoveFirst
    Do While Not rs.EOF
        txt = txt & rs.Fields("ID") & vbCrLf
        
        rs.MoveNext
        
    Loop

    rs.Close
    
    txtResult.SetFocus
    txtResult.Text = txt
    
End Sub

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Even, if I do ?txt in the Immediate window, I only get the last 20 lines. Not 1 to 1374

Bitsqueezer

You need to use "Debug.Print" if you want to output the text to the Immediate Window of VBA.

If you want to add one line like with your first example, it would be rather something like this:

txt = txt & rs.Fields("ID") & "," & rs.Fields("name") & "," & Replace(rs.Fields("Properties"),vbCrLf, ",") & vbCrLf

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But of course the Immediate Window has only a small buffer, that's why I said you would need to output the CSV to a file:

Dim f As Integer
f = FreeFile
Open "filename.csv" For Output As #f
....
' (in the loop then after building the CSV string)
Print #f, txt
...
' after ending the loop:
Close #f

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In case that you are writing to a file you will see all rows, moreover you should remove the last "vbCrLf" from the txt string above as "Print #" automatically writes a return to the file if you do not add a ";" at the end of the Print line.

APD Toronto

ASKER

Exporting by right click helping get better results, but I cannot still import.

The attached is what I ended up with exporting, columns A through H, then after unsuccessful import I tried building the formula on J1, but now all carriage return no space. Within my Excel formula, can I do a replace of e1 so that it replace a carriage return with ", "?

APD Toronto

ASKER

Here is the file...
TBL_DICE_Factorial_Analysis.xlsx

Chris Stanyon

Have you considered doing all of this directly in PHP ? Make 2 database connections - one to your Access DB and one to your MySQL database. Then just run your SELECT query against the Access connection, loop through the records, do whatever manipulation you need (str_replace the newlines with commas / create child records etc) and run an INSERT query against your MySQL connection.

APD Toronto

ASKER

I wanted to limit my work, but I can do that if I can connect PHP to Access. What is the PHP connection string for Access?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Chris Stanyon

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SOLUTION

PatHartman

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