Christopher Hawkins
clh at christopherhawkins.com
Mon Sep 12 14:51:34 CDT 2005
Gah, I finally got it. My querystring looks like this:
"Driver={Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver};SourceType=DBF;SourceDB=C:\Foo\Bar;Exclusive=No;Collate=Machine;NULL=NO;DELETED=NO;BACKGROUNDFETCH=NO"
What a PITA. I am reminded why I stick to SQL Server and Oracle. ;)
-C-
----------------------------------------
From: "Christopher Hawkins" <clh at christopherhawkins.com>
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:32 PM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com>, <accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: [AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Re: SPAM-LOW: Re: SPAM-LOW: Re: DBF & Access: "external table is not inthe expectedformat"
AHA!
I see an .fpt counterpart to the .dbf file I'm trying to open. So we must be dealing with a FoxPro file then.
But swapping out the dBASE driver for a FoxPro driver doesn't seem to do anything. Hmmm...
-C-
----------------------------------------
From: MartyConnelly
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:16 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: [AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Re: SPAM-LOW: Re: DBF & Access: "external table is not inthe expectedformat"
Wild guess.
Maybe have a quick gander at the dbf files in a hex editor for clues.
Could it contain a pointer to a memo field, Excel might ignore it
Each of these has a different format of memo/index
files.
Driver - Database, Index(s), Memo file
Dbase III+ - .DBF, .NDX, .DBT
Dbase IV - .DBF, .MDX, .DBT
Clipper - .DBF, .NTX, .DBT
Foxpro - .DBF, .IDX/.CDX, .FPT
A memo file is not literally attached to a dbf file, but the dbf file
contains
offsets to the associated data in the memo file. Memo files are made up of
blocks, each record in the database can point to 1 block. If the data is
more
than a block long, the end of memo marker simply appears in the next block,
and the data is read starting at the first block of the memo until the
end of memo
is hit. The field that is type memo in the .dbf is a numeric pointer to
the block in
the memo file.
Christopher Hawkins wrote:
>Other .dbf files that are created by this program do indeed import into Access just fine. There are a few that do not (like the one I am trying to open). I am not sure what the difference is.
>
>UPDATE: I am able to open the file in Excel as a .dbf file. But I still cannot import the file into Access. On a lark, I tried connecting to it from an ASP page via a connect string, which didn't work either. This file seems awfully particular about who it will cooperate with! Opening in Excel but not importing into Access just makes NO sense to me.
>
>I've got every FoxPro and DBASE driver that Office offers installed.
>
>-C-
>
>----------------------------------------
> From: "John W. Colby"
>Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 1:52 PM
>To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'"
>Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: [AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Re: DBF & Access: "external table is not inthe expectedformat"
>
>In which case it might not even be a dbf (dbase) file. You can call an mdb
>anything you want and Access will still open it. Maybe this thing just
>calls its data files dbfs.
>
>John W. Colby
>www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
>Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause:
>http://folding.stanford.edu/
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
>[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Christopher
>Hawkins
>Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:36 PM
>To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
>Subject: Re: [AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Re: DBF & Access: "external table is not
>inthe expectedformat"
>
>It's coming from some shrinkwrapped management app they bought. They don't
>know what version of .dbf file it is producing. They don't know much of
>anything, really.
>
>-C-
>
>----------------------------------------
>From: "John W. Colby"
>Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 1:21 PM
>To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'"
>
>Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: [AccessD] DBF & Access: "external table is not in the
>expectedformat"
>
>Have you asked the client what application (and version) the table is from?
>
>John W. Colby
>www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
>Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause:
>http://folding.stanford.edu/
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
>[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Christopher
>Hawkins
>Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 3:08 PM
>To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
>Subject: [AccessD] DBF & Access: "external table is not in the
>expectedformat"
>
>All,
>
>This is driving me nuts. A client needs me to be able to link to their .dbf
>data file from Access. Every time I try to link or import, I get the error
>message:
>
>"external table is not in the expected format"
>
>I've tried searching Microsoft's site and have come up with little so far.
>I'vetried linking and connecting with DBASE5, III and IV. I'm not sure what
>else to try. Has anyone else seen this problem before?
>
>-C-
>
>
>
--
Marty Connelly
Victoria, B.C.
Canada
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