Forum Discussion
emptying access databank
I received an access document from my boss and i would like to extract all the data without modifying the structure, references and the database itself. Is there a certain way to do this?
So basically I just want to empty my access document without ruining or deleting the document.
Thank you!!
The terms you use indicate you have little or no prior experience with the MS Access application.
"Documents' is rarely, if ever, applied to an Access relational database application, for example.
"Databank" is an older term that I seem to recall from the 1980's and 90's, but haven't seen in this context for a long time. Perhaps it's a translation from another language into English. In any event, that tells me some basic study time on your part would be very productive.
We could, and probably will, tell you how to delete the data, but that's a very small part of the task ahead of you. Make sure you invest time in the effort to understand what a relational database application is, what it does, and how it works. Invest time and effort in learning more about Access itself. I speak from experience, bad things come from diving into a new area with inadequate preparation.
To the task at hand.
All data is stored in tables in the Access accdb file. If you want to remove the data without changing anything else, all you need to do is delete it from the tables.
Do not delete any of the tables themselves.
That's easier said than done, and before you even start, you need to know which data can be safely deleted, and probably you need to know if any of it should not be deleted. Many relational database applications have Lookup tables containing basic data used in different tasks, but which is not part of the history. I'm thinking of small tables that might list salutations (Mr., Mrs., Ms., and so on). If there are tables like that, you probably DO NOT want to delete that data. Only a good understanding of the purpose for the application can guide you.
Here's where it's going to get complicated. In a properly designed relational database application, there will be many tables in one-to-many relationships. More importantly and to the point, those relationships will have referential integrity enforced. That means you can not delete data in a "one-side" table until the data in the related "many-side" table has been deleted.
If that paragraph sounds like alien-speak to you, now would be a good time to put this task aside and invest time learning about Access and relational database applications.
One last piece of advice. Make a backup copy of this accdb and put it in a safe location. DO NOT TOUCH it. Work only on a copy for this task.
- there is a simple way to do this.
just make a copy of the db and put the copy in a safe place.
on the original, delete all records from the tables. you can also use this db to empty the other db.
make sure you have a copy/backup of the other db.
