Exporting MSAccess Tables as Unicode with Tilde delimiter

Question

I want to export the contents of several tables from MSAccess2003. The tables contain unicode Japanese characters. I want to store them as tilde delimited text files.

I can do this manually using File/Export and, in the 'Advanced' dialog selecting tilde as Field Delimiter and the Unicode as the Code Page.

I can store this as an Export Specification, but this seems to be table specific.

I want to export many tables using VBA Code.

So far I have tried:

Sub ExportTables()

Dim lTbl As Long
Dim dBase As Database
Dim TableName As String

Set dBase = CurrentDb

For lTbl = 0 To dBase.TableDefs.Count
     'If the table name is a temporary or system table then ignore it
    If Left(dBase.TableDefs(lTbl).Name, 1) = "~" Or _
    Left(dBase.TableDefs(lTbl).Name, 4) = "MSYS" Then
         '~ indicates a temporary table
         'MSYS indicates a system level table
    Else
      TableName = dBase.TableDefs(lTbl).Name
      DoCmd.TransferText acExportDelim, "UnicodeTilde", TableName, "c:\" + TableName + ".txt", True
    End If
Next lTbl
Set dBase = Nothing

End Sub

When I run this I get an exception:

Run-time error '3011': The Microsoft Jet database engine could not find the object "Allowance1#txt'. Make sure the object exists and that you spell its name and the path name correctly.

If I debug at this point, TableName is 'Allowance1', as expected.

I guess my UnicodeTilde export specification is table specific, so I can't use it for multiple tables.

What is the solution? Should I use something else, other than TransferText, or perhaps create the export specification programatically?

Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

I've got part of the answer:

I'm writing a schema.ini file with VBA, then doing my TransferText. This is creating an export format on the fly. The only problem is, although my schema.ini contains:

ColNameHeader = True
CharacterSet = Unicode
Format = Delimited(~)

Only the header row is coming out in unicode with tilde delimiters. The rest of the rows are ANSI with commas.

Answer 2

I've got two suggestions for you:

1. Make sure you're putting each setting in your [schema.ini] file on a new line. (You've listed it here all on one line, so I thought I'd make sure.)

2. Don't forget to supply the CodePage argument (last one) when you call your TransferText. Here's a list of supported values if you need it:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288104.aspx

Other than that, it looks like your approach should work.

Answer 3

I have eventually solved this. (I am now using Access 2007 but had the same problems as with Access 2003.)

First, what didn't work:

TransferText would only make the Header Row unicode and tilde delimited, even with a correctly formatted schema.ini. (No, I didn't put it all on one line, that was just a formatting issue with the html on stackoverflow.)

[MyTable.txt]
CharacterSet = Unicode
Format = Delimited(~)
ColNameHeader = True
NumberDigits = 10
Col1= "Col1" Char Width 10
Col2= "Col2" Integer
Col3= "Col3" Char Width 2

Just using a select statement:

SELECT * INTO [Text;DATABASE=c:\export\;FMT=Delimited(~)].[MyTable.txt] FROM [MyTable]

Totally ignored the FMT. I found it very hard to find documentation on the format of the parameters. Whatever I typed in the FMT parameter, the only things I could get to work was Fixed. Everything else was treated as CSVDelimited. I could chech this as the select statement created a schema.ini file like this:

[MyTable.txt]
ColNameHeader=True
CharacterSet=1252
Format=CSVDelimited
Col1=Col1 Char Width 10
Col2=Col2 Integer
Col3=Col3 Char Width 2

My eventual solution was to create my own schema.ini then use the select statement. My Module code looks something like this:

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

    Public Function CreateSchemaFile(bIncFldNames As Boolean, _
                                       sPath As String, _
                                       sSectionName As String, _
                                       sTblQryName As String) As Boolean


         Dim Msg As String
         On Local Error GoTo CreateSchemaFile_Err
         Dim ws As Workspace, db As Database
         Dim tblDef As TableDef, fldDef As Field
         Dim i As Integer, Handle As Integer
         Dim fldName As String, fldDataInfo As String
         ' -----------------------------------------------
         ' Set DAO objects.
         ' -----------------------------------------------
         Set db = CurrentDb()
         ' -----------------------------------------------
         ' Open schema file for append.
         ' -----------------------------------------------
         Handle = FreeFile
         Open sPath & "schema.ini" For Output Access Write As #Handle
         ' -----------------------------------------------
         ' Write schema header.
         ' -----------------------------------------------
         Print #Handle, "[" & sSectionName & "]"
         Print #Handle, "CharacterSet = Unicode"
         Print #Handle, "Format = Delimited(~)"
         Print #Handle, "ColNameHeader = " & _
                         IIf(bIncFldNames, "True", "False")
         Print #Handle, "NumberDigits = 10"
         ' -----------------------------------------------
         ' Get data concerning schema file.
         ' -----------------------------------------------
         Set tblDef = db.TableDefs(sTblQryName)
         With tblDef
            For i = 0 To .Fields.Count - 1
               Set fldDef = .Fields(i)
               With fldDef
                  fldName = .Name
                  Select Case .Type
                     Case dbBoolean
                        fldDataInfo = "Bit"
                     Case dbByte
                        fldDataInfo = "Byte"
                     Case dbInteger
                        fldDataInfo = "Short"
                     Case dbLong
                        fldDataInfo = "Integer"
                     Case dbCurrency
                        fldDataInfo = "Currency"
                     Case dbSingle
                        fldDataInfo = "Single"
                     Case dbDouble
                        fldDataInfo = "Double"
                     Case dbDate
                        fldDataInfo = "Date"
                     Case dbText
                        fldDataInfo = "Char Width " & Format$(.Size)
                     Case dbLongBinary
                        fldDataInfo = "OLE"
                     Case dbMemo
                        fldDataInfo = "LongChar"
                     Case dbGUID
                        fldDataInfo = "Char Width 16"
                  End Select
                  Print #Handle, "Col" & Format$(i + 1) _
                                  & "= """ & fldName & """" & Space$(1); "" _
                                  & fldDataInfo
               End With
            Next i
         End With
         CreateSchemaFile = True
CreateSchemaFile_End:
         Close Handle
         Exit Function
CreateSchemaFile_Err:
         Msg = "Error #: " & Format$(Err.Number) & vbCrLf
         Msg = Msg & Err.Description
         MsgBox Msg
         Resume CreateSchemaFile_End
      End Function

Public Function ExportATable(TableName As String)
Dim ThePath As String
Dim FileName As String
Dim TheQuery As String
Dim Exporter As QueryDef
ThePath = "c:\export\"
FileName = TableName + ".txt"
CreateSchemaFile True, ThePath, FileName, TableName
On Error GoTo IgnoreDeleteFileErrors
FileSystem.Kill ThePath + FileName
IgnoreDeleteFileErrors:
TheQuery = "SELECT * INTO [Text;DATABASE=" + ThePath + "].[" + FileName + "] FROM [" + TableName + "]"
Set Exporter = CurrentDb.CreateQueryDef("", TheQuery)
Exporter.Execute
End Function


Sub ExportTables()

    Dim lTbl As Long
    Dim dBase As Database
    Dim TableName As String

    Set dBase = CurrentDb

    For lTbl = 0 To dBase.TableDefs.Count - 1
         'If the table name is a temporary or system table then ignore it
        If Left(dBase.TableDefs(lTbl).Name, 1) = "~" Or _
        Left(dBase.TableDefs(lTbl).Name, 4) = "MSYS" Then
             '~ indicates a temporary table
             'MSYS indicates a system level table
        Else
          TableName = dBase.TableDefs(lTbl).Name
          ExportATable (TableName)
        End If
    Next lTbl
    Set dBase = Nothing
End Sub

I make no claims that this is elegant, but it works. Also note that the stackoverflow code formatter doesn't like my \", so it doesn't pretty print my code very nicely.