Question

I am using a macro to export a table in a Microsoft Access database to a csv file in order to import into a mysql database. I ended up using a batchfile that would place a marker in the text file before the exporting took place, and then place everything after the last marker into a new file. This works fine, except for the fact that access does not append, but will recreate the file each time, so it is impossible to use any kind of marker.

Is there any way, using access or batch files or whatever, to either a) force access to append to a file, or to place a marker of its own, or b) export to a different file each time, possibly the filename being a variable such as the date, or c) overcome this behavior with outside manipulation

Answer 1

Instead of using a macro to export the table you could simply create some code to open the file, and append the data to it.

How to use

Simply copy the code to a VBA module in your application and call it like this:

' Export the Table 'Orders' to 'orders.csv', appending the data to the       ' ' existing file if there is one.                                             ' ExportQueryToCSV 'Orders', 'C:\orders.csv', AppendToFile:=True  ' Export the result of the query to 'stock.csv' using tabs as delimiters     ' ' and no header or quotes around strings                                     ' ExportQueryToCSV 'SELECT * FROM Stock WHERE PartID=2', _                  'C:\stock.csv', _                  AppendToFile:=False, _                  IncludeHeader:=False, _                  Delimiter:=chr(9), _                  QuoteString:=false 

Code

'----------------------------------------------------------------------------' ' Export the given query to the given CSV file.                              ' '                                                                            ' ' Options are:                                                               ' ' - AppendToFile : to append the record to the file if it exists instead of  '  '                  overwriting it (default is false)                         ' ' - Delimiter    : what separator to use (default is the coma)               ' ' - QuoteString  : Whether string and memo fields should be quoted           ' '                  (default yes)                                             ' ' - IncludeHeader: Whether a header with the field names should be the first ' '                  line (default no)                                         ' ' Some limitations and improvements:                                         ' ' - Memo containing line returns will break the CSV                          ' ' - better formatting for numbers, dates, etc                                ' '----------------------------------------------------------------------------' Public Sub ExportQueryToCSV(Query As String, _                             FilePath As String, _                             Optional AppendToFile As Boolean = False, _                             Optional Delimiter As String = ',', _                             Optional QuoteStrings As Boolean = True, _                             Optional IncludeHeader As Boolean = True)     Dim db As DAO.Database     Dim rs As DAO.RecordSet      Set db = CurrentDb     Set rs = db.OpenRecordset(Query, dbOpenSnapshot)     If Not (rs Is Nothing) Then         Dim intFile As Integer          ' Open the file, either as a new file or in append mode as required '         intFile = FreeFile()         If AppendToFile And (Len(Dir(FilePath, vbNormal)) > 0) Then             Open FilePath For Append As #intFile         Else             Open FilePath For Output As #intFile         End If          With rs             Dim fieldbound As Long, i As Long             Dim record As String             Dim field As DAO.field              fieldbound = .Fields.count - 1              ' Print the header if required '             If IncludeHeader Then                 Dim header As String                 For i = 0 To fieldbound                     header = header & .Fields(i).Name                     If i < fieldbound Then                         header = header & Delimiter                     End If                 Next i                 Print #intFile, header             End If              ' print each record'             Do While Not .EOF                 record = ''                 For i = 0 To fieldbound                     Set field = .Fields(i)                     If ((field.Type = dbText) Or (field.Type = dbMemo)) And QuoteStrings Then                         record = record & '''' & Nz(.Fields(i).value, '') & ''''                     Else                         record = record & Nz(.Fields(i).value)                     End If                     If i < fieldbound Then                         record = record & Delimiter                     End If                     Set field = Nothing                 Next i                 Print #intFile, record                 .MoveNext             Loop             .Close         End With         Set rs = Nothing         Close #intFile     End If     Set rs = Nothing     Set db = Nothing End Sub 

Note that it’s not perfect and you may have to adapt the code to reflect how you want the data to be formatted, but the defaults should be fine in most cases.