[Techtalk] MS Access --> mysql

[Glenda R. Snodgrass]

> My boss had asked if there was a way to convert an ms access db to mysql.  Not 
> having dealt with databases before I couldn't give a qualified answer.  So I 
> am calling on all those db experts out there to ask a few questions.
> 
> 1.	Is it as simple as exporting in some sort of delimitied file and importing 
> into mysql?

Moving the data is that simple, yes, after cleanup.

> 2. 	Has anyone ever tried to do this?

I recently converted a fairly complex database system with a dozen tables
from Access to mySQL with few problems.  I wrote the mySQL front end in
PHP, which gave us many more options than the original Access front end, 
but it was also quite a bit of work.

> 3.	Were there any gotchas to look out for?

The biggest problems were cleaning up the data coming out of Access, and
how much trouble you have will depend on how well the original Access
database was structured.  The one I worked with had few rules for data
integrity, so there were lots of unmatched records and tons of duplicates.  
The date and time fields out of Access had to be reformatted with a perl
script to import into mySQL (dates came out of Access in the format
05/02/2003 IIRC whereas mySQL stores them as 2003-05-02).

> 4.	Is msql relatively close to ms access in behaviour?

Not sure exactly what you're asking, but I wouldn't call them close in any 
way, no.

-- 
Glenda R. Snodgrass

Before you begin, consider ... The Net Effect
http://www.theneteffect.com
(251) 433-0196