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Creating Databases Using Database Access Kit

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Introducing a New Database

The creation of a new database can be done only through the ODBC control panel.

  1. Open the ODBC control panel. From the Windows Start button, select Settings and then Control Panel. Double-click the ODBC icon. You will be presented with the ODBC Data Source Administrator, or similarly titled, window.

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  2. To view the list of available database drivers, click the Add button in the ODBC Data Source Administrator window.

  3. Choose Microsoft Access Driver (to connect to a Microsoft Access database), and then click Finish.

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  4. Type "dbcreate" into the Data Source Name field and "dbcreate database example" next to Description. Click the Create button.

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  5. Type "dbcreate.mdb" into the field for Database Name. Place this database in a directory by choosing, for example, the \Windows\temp directory found within the Windows folder in the Directories list. Click OK.

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  6. A dialog box confirming the successful completion of the database should appear. If it does, click OK in this and each successive window until the control panel is closed.

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Filling the New Database

To create the structure of the database, first load Database Access Kit and open the database.

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Next, create a table and its columns.

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Enter three rows of data in the "employees" table, using the SQLInsert function three times, with different data values each time.

 
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This process can also be automated for any list using just a couple of lines of code.

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The new function addEmployee takes either a name or a list of names. It could easily be generalized to read the names from a file, from another database table, or off the web. It could also be modified to take the column name as a variable or assign it to a button.

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The next line adds these four names to the database dbcreate.

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View the "employees" table with column headings. Each of the column names has a space in the name as defined.

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emp_id emp_lname emp_fname
0001 Isaac Newton
0002 George Washington
0003 Jesse James
0004 Donald Tubbs
0005 Claire Mulligan
0006 Peter Fontane
0007 Julie Debussy

Close the data source. 

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