Linking Tables (1 Viewer)

MercuriAl

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Hi all
I am developing a 2010 database which is split. In the back end I am linking to csv files - with a new file every month to link to.
What I would like to do (and have not been able to find a way to do at all so far! :() is each month to add the new table link in the _be and to be able to choose it in the front end user interface to view reports on, without having to "re-programme" the underlying queries to use the new linked table.
I have a limited knowledge of VBA so am not too worried if this is required to achieve the solution. Any ideas anyone?
Thanks
Alec
 

MercuriAl

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Hi all
Firstly apologies for posting in the wrong forum and thanks for moving it.
Secondly, does the lack of replies indicate that I am trying to find a solution to a problem that can not be overcome?
If someone can confirm that what I am after is not possible that would be a s good to me as an answer itself.
Thanks all.
Alec
 

plog

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It's not possible. You can't link to a link. You want your front end to link to a back end which itself is linked--not going to happen. I'm sure you can probably hack something together to have the front end directly link to those .csv files, but I'd recommend against it.

Instead, I would do this: make a table in the backend to hold all the data in those .csv files, then link the front end to that table. Every month you would append the new file to that back end table and by doing so, the link from the front end would have access to that new data.
 

MercuriAl

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Hi Plog
Many thanks for the reply.
I think you are right with what you say. However, I may not have explained clearly enough - the issue is not in fact with the linked tables - it is more about being able to switch any table as the source for a query by selecting a table from a list on a form (the tables would have identical field names etc.
I did find a post on this forum about using union queries which may be one way of acieving this. What do you think?
Many thanks
Alec
 

plog

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Like I said, I'm sure you can hack something together to have the front end directly link and use those .csv files, but I'd recommend against it. In the end, a UNION query is very similar to the method I proposed of appending each month's data to a table--it gets the data into one data source you can then reference. But how are you going to have the system automatically find those files and incorporate them into that UNION query? I don't think its possible.

I think the path of least resistance is building one table and appending each new monthly file to that table.
 

gemma-the-husky

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the easiest way, i would have thought, is to import the csv to a standard name table, and report against that.
 

MercuriAl

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Hi Dave
Thanks for the reply.
I thought to link individual monthly files so that the database size does not increase hugely (the monthly csv files are 5mb each) and that the queries do not end up running reaaaally slow!
Cheers
Alec
 

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