Connecting to dat file from access or VB

[shaiss]

Hi there,
I'm trying to connect to a dat file used by auction sentry (popular ebay bid snipping program). I need to have a linked table of some sort, that upon oppening the access database connects to that .dat file. I have the layout for that dat file as it is a fixed width file. The import wizard almost works, but I have to rename the file to .txt file and even then some of the fields come out as #num. Please help!!!

I can do this in either access or VB, please help meee......

 

[Pat Hartman]

A couple of years ago, the MS team in a frenzy of tightening security, went a little overboard and banned all but a few extension types. The ".dat" extension has no common format. It is used by many applications as their propritary file format. If YOUR .dat file is truely a text file, change its extension to .txt or .csv prior to importing it. In order to get correct results, you may have to go through the import manually once so you can create an import spec. Save the spec before exiting the import wizard. Once the import works correctly, you can automate it by using the TransferText Method/Action and referring to the import spec.