Make Table Query to external ODBC SQL Server database

Hi All,

Is it possible to create a Make Table query in access (2.0 and 2003)
that creates the table into a SQL Server database?

Following the steps:
1- Create New Query
2- Set Query Type as Make-Table query
3- Enter table name
4- Click "Another Database", click Browse, then I cannot see anything
about data sources, ODBC, or SQL Server in the drop down box !!! only
few file types like *.mdb, *.adp, ...etc.

I already setup a ODBC data source.

If this is not supported from the GUI, then what is the SQL syntax? in
other words, SELECT * INTO Table1 IN "???" FROM Table2

Thanks for reading.

Mourad

I am fairly certain that you can't create a table in Sql Server from an
Access mdb using ODBC. But you can certainly create a table on the
server from an Access mdb using ADO. First make a reference to the
Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5 (or higher) Library. From a code
module (you have to be in a code module to do this) go to the
Tools/References menu and select Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5 (or
2.6...) Library

And here is a code sample:

Sub CreateServerTable()
Dim cmd As New ADODB.Command

cmd.ActiveConnection = "Provider=SQLOLEDB; Data
Source=yourServer;Database=yourDB;UID=steve;passwo rd=abc;"

'--or if you have windows integrated security set

'cmd.ActiveConnection = "Provider=SQLOLEDB; Data
Source=yourserver;Database=yourDB;Trusted_Connecti on=Yes"

cmd.ActiveConnection.CursorLocation = adUseClient
cmd.CommandType = adCmdText

cmd.CommandText = "Create Table tbl1(rowID int Identity(1,1), fld1
varchar(50), Datefld datetime, fld3 varchar(50))

cmd.Execute

cmd.ActiveConnection.Close
End Sub


Rich

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Rich P wrote:
> I am fairly certain that you can't create a table in Sql Server from
> an Access mdb using ODBC. [snip]

I can think if no reason why a passthrough query that executed a CREATE
TABLE statement would not work via ODBC. Assuming of course the user has
permissions to create tables.

--
Rick Brandt, Microsoft Access MVP
Email (as appropriate) to...
RBrandt at Hunter dot com

I suppose MS may have implied that one needs to know nothing about SQL-
Server technology in order to use an SQL-Server database through ODBC.
If they did they are wrong. Where is the big red screen that pops up
to the accompaniment of the Dead March from Saul and says, "Hey,
Friends and Neighbours, before you jump into this, here's a minimum
curriculum that you should master."

I don't use ODBC but reading about it makes me think it's pretty
powerful. To select, update, delete data one can use any old Access
query. The ODBC translates this, amazingly well, into something SQL-
Server understands. No brains required. For most Access users and an
increasing number of developers this is just as well.
But TTBOMK, ODBC does not translate something so visceral as a make
table query; we use a Pass-Through query here. The query is passed
through, un-translated, untouched my human-hand, to the SQL-Server and
run there. As the query SQL isn't translated (TTBOMK) we have to know
the correct syntax for SQL-Server and therin lies the challenge.

For a long time I have preached that one of the advantages of the ADP
and ADO is that one is encouraged to learn about the database engine,
in this case, SQL-Server, and one may discover why T-SQL is a million-
gazillion times more powerful than JET/ACE SQL. Well, I am old; I come
from a different age. When I was a boy, besides walking twenty-two
miles to school after milking six hundred cows by hand, I was also
brain-washed into thinking that learning something, anything was
intrinsically good, and about as exciting as life ever got. Reading
CDMA over the past few years has made me believe that this quaint
notion will die with me.

All of that crap could be shortened to "use a pass-through query".

On Aug 27, 10:20*am, Mourad wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Is it possible to create a Make Table query in access (2.0 and 2003)
> that creates the table into a SQL Server database?
>
> Following the steps:
> 1- Create New Query
> 2- Set Query Type as Make-Table query
> 3- Enter table name
> 4- Click "Another Database", click Browse, then I cannot see anything
> about data sources, ODBC, or SQL Server in the drop down box !!! only
> few file types like **.mdb, *.adp, ...etc.
>
> I already setup a ODBC data source.
>
> If this is not supported from the GUI, then what is the SQL syntax? in
> other words, SELECT * INTO Table1 IN "???" *FROM Table2
>
> Thanks for reading.
>
> Mourad

lol nice lyle ill play the worlds smallest violin for you.

My question would be why are you trying to use a make table query.
The data in one is redundant as soon as you make it. It is only good
for maybe doing a series of reports on a very complex query that takes
a very long time to run.

Thanks, Lord Kelvan and lyle fairfield for your valuiable input,

It's really worth to converting the Make-Table to pass-through
queries, however, it's worth mentioning the following:

1- The Make-Tables queries already exists, there are simply hundreds
of them! As I mentioned earlier, I'm moving from Access 2.0 back-end
to SQL Server.

2- The Make-Table queries join both Tables and Queries! The joined
queries further join tables and queries, and so on! The joined tables
could reside in both SQL Server and/or the local Access MDB file!! I'm
not sure how the ODBC/SQL Server will handle this! but it's worth to
try!

3- Losing the Query Design view for Pass Through queries is a little
discouraging!


This is a part of migrating an existing application, that was designed
using Access/File Server framework.

I will give it a shot to see how Access will handle this.

Thanks again,

Mourad

I think you are likely to find the problems lie with creating SQL Server
tables from Access via ODBC. With some care, you may be able to create the
tables in SQL Server, and use Append Queries to add the data records to
them, instead of Make-Table Queries to create them with data.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP

"Mourad" wrote in message
news:4706469c-42db-4df4-92e9-d9dbef17b971-at-i76g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks, Lord Kelvan and lyle fairfield for your valuiable input,
>
> It's really worth to converting the Make-Table to pass-through
> queries, however, it's worth mentioning the following:
>
> 1- The Make-Tables queries already exists, there are simply hundreds
> of them! As I mentioned earlier, I'm moving from Access 2.0 back-end
> to SQL Server.
>
> 2- The Make-Table queries join both Tables and Queries! The joined
> queries further join tables and queries, and so on! The joined tables
> could reside in both SQL Server and/or the local Access MDB file!! I'm
> not sure how the ODBC/SQL Server will handle this! but it's worth to
> try!
>
> 3- Losing the Query Design view for Pass Through queries is a little
> discouraging!
>
>
> This is a part of migrating an existing application, that was designed
> using Access/File Server framework.
>
> I will give it a shot to see how Access will handle this.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Mourad

Thanks Klatuu and Larry,

The motivation to move back-end to SQL Server is not mainly the file
size! The back-end is already split over many MDB file, with links to
front-end. I would say there are more than one motivation: one of them
is to get Access 2.0 and Access 2003 front-end applications to share
the same back-end data, which is version 2.0 mdb! For some reason we
are unable to run 2.0 and 2003 applications against the same 2.0 mdb
database!!! You may ask why don't upgrade all to 2003? Cannot! because
the application is huge, there are so many front and back-end's
databases, it is just too risky, and requires code freeze for a
while, ...etc. So one solution was to move the 2.0 back-end into SQL
Server, so front-end's applications connect using ODBC, and so we can
have 2.0 and 2003 apps share same data, then after that we can start
upgrade one front-end at a time. (sorry for the long details)

Larry,

I think Make-Table queries are a maintenance free approach! You don't
have to worry about any structure changes to the underlying joint
tables, things just work automatically. usually the tables created
using Make-Table query are temporary, in nature, that are used for
reports, ...etc. But I agree it also can be done using the Append
query, after deleting all rows!


I appreciate the tip for creating the right SQL syntax using both
Access and the Management studio.

Thanks,

Mourad

None of these invalidates my suggestion. If you use Enterprise Manager to
create the tables in SQL Server, and link them, you should have no problem
_appending_ the Access records to the SQL tables. And, that will serve
exactly the same purpose -- creating and populating the SQL Server tables
with the data that is currently in Access.

And, given that

(1) you have not been able to use Make-Table queries to create SQL Server
tables, and

(2) no one here seems to have done so,

you are quite possibly wasting every minute that you spend trying to find a
way to do what seems, on the surface to be "an easier way".

Access 2.0 is, long since, "out of support", and there are a number of other
reasons to bring it up-to-date. Wishing you did not have to expend time and
energy to avoid the problems isn't going to make them go away. You can work
around some of them, but at the expense of making use of Access 2.0 more
complex. I was very fond of Access 2.0, but unless you retain some old,
limited-memory machines, plan on running it under a Virtual Machine so you
can limit memory to a size Access 2.0 can handle.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP

"Mourad" wrote in message
news:c5eb60a3-301c-40ed-b28f-375877547766-at-m45g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks Klatuu and Larry,
>
> The motivation to move back-end to SQL Server is not mainly the file
> size! The back-end is already split over many MDB file, with links to
> front-end. I would say there are more than one motivation: one of them
> is to get Access 2.0 and Access 2003 front-end applications to share
> the same back-end data, which is version 2.0 mdb! For some reason we
> are unable to run 2.0 and 2003 applications against the same 2.0 mdb
> database!!! You may ask why don't upgrade all to 2003? Cannot! because
> the application is huge, there are so many front and back-end's
> databases, it is just too risky, and requires code freeze for a
> while, ...etc. So one solution was to move the 2.0 back-end into SQL
> Server, so front-end's applications connect using ODBC, and so we can
> have 2.0 and 2003 apps share same data, then after that we can start
> upgrade one front-end at a time. (sorry for the long details)
>
> Larry,
>
> I think Make-Table queries are a maintenance free approach! You don't
> have to worry about any structure changes to the underlying joint
> tables, things just work automatically. usually the tables created
> using Make-Table query are temporary, in nature, that are used for
> reports, ...etc. But I agree it also can be done using the Append
> query, after deleting all rows!
>
>
> I appreciate the tip for creating the right SQL syntax using both
> Access and the Management studio.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mourad

Thanks, larry, for the feed back,

Just wanted to make a correction, that, I actually COULD find the
right syntax to convert the Make-Table query to create the destination
table in SQL SQL Server! In addition, I've posted the syntax above so
it may benefit everyone! Here is it again:


"... set the query property "Dest Connect Str" to
"ODBC;DSN=DataSourceName;DATABASE=DBname;Trusted_Co nnection=Yes;"

The result SQL query look like:

SELECT * INTO
[ODBC;DSN=DataSourceName;DATABASE=DBname;Trusted_Co nnection=Yes;].DstTable
FROM SrcTable;


Thanks again for your comments and feedback,

Mourad