Is it better to import ot to link?

[HERNAN CASTRO]

I got a question... I have to upload information from a delimited text
file... but first I have to check it has all the fields I need so I do not
know if is it better to link the table or to import the table to a temporary
table, check it out and then delete it from my database...

Which makes the database grows bigger and what happens if I link hundreds of
tables..will the database keep memory of the criteria used to link the
tables???

Is there anyother way to access a text file to check if all the fields are
present??

Thanks

Hernan

 

[John Nurick]

Hi Hernan,

You could simply open the text file with Notepad or Wordpad and inspect
the field names (if present) or the first row of data.

Otherwise, just link to the text file and delete the linked table when
you've finished with it. Deleting the linked table has no effect on the
text file it's linked to.

 

[HERNAN CASTRO]

Thanks,

I have to upload information from at least 100 text files a day.. so can you
imagine checking all of them manually???

So I link the table.. check all the fields and the unpload the table and
delete the linked table.

One thing I think I read once is that everytime you link a table the
database grows 20 KB or so...is it true??

Hernan

 

[Ted]

Hi Hernan,

This process (inspecting the files and appending only the
ones with the proper fields) can be fully automated, but
it would require writing Visual Basic code. Other than
that, I don't know how you could really improve the
process.

Regarding the database file size growth, I would expect
that if you link a file, then delete the link, the
database size will likely increase, but it should return
to the previous size when the database is compacted. You
should be compacting the database regularly anyway, so I
don't think that this should be an issue.

If you want to get some ideas as to what would be
involved in programmatically importing files, you can do
a search for threads started by Toby and Jason about a
month or so ago (not sure if it was under importing, or
forms programming, or modules). If you have any
experience with VB it shouldn't be very difficult. If
you don't have any programming experience, it might be a
challenge.

Hopefully that helps.

-Ted