Getting data into memo fields

[Don Wiss]

I have never used memo fields in Access. I have data now in an APL
component file that I'd like to import into memo fields. While some
descriptions are a single line, some are a variable number of lines. I do
not want these lines to wrap. APL, being a raw language, will let me format
this data in any way needed. It may be easier to get it into Excel first,
and then Access. What line ending delimiter should I use for the multi-line
fields? Any tips on how to best do this?

Don <donwiss at panix.com>.

 

[John Nurick]

Hi Don,

A pretty reliable way is to export to a CSV file and have Access import
that. For multi-line text fields, you need to ensure:

1) the entire field is delimited (qualified) by quote marks
2) any quote marks within the data are doubled ""

Both the file's record separators and the linebreaks within the memo
fields must be CRLF pairs (hex 0d 0a).

E.g.

1,"Short Text","Steven asked, ""What time is it?""
On a new line, Paula replied, ""I don't know."""
2,"Next record"

 

[Don Wiss]

A pretty reliable way is to export to a CSV file and have Access import
that. For multi-line text fields, you need to ensure:

Thanks.

I got a chance to work on this today. My biggest problem was after I was
done I looked at the table and I only saw the first line of the memo field
data!

The data did have a few quote marks in the data that was to go into the
memo fields. As I already had a function that replaced characters, it was
easier to replace them with single quotes.

I found that an easy way to check that the quotes were alright was to open
in Excel (the default for a filetype of csv). A quick scroll down showed if
there were any problems.

Don <donwiss at panix.com>.