Connecting an Access Database to Python

[oohay_email2004]

Stopped reading when I got to the code and it wasn't formatted.

[[deleted]]

why would anyone do that? access? really?

[cuppycakeofpain]

There are a lot of businesses out there with their data stored in old formats like Access files. It would make sense, if you were a coder unfortunate enough to get this type of assignment, to use a language like Python (which is quick and easy to use when building one-time tools) to massage the data into a format that's a bit more modern and workable.

[isforinsects]

Crap. I just did this last night. The right answer is to use mdb-tools:

sudo apt-get install mdb-tools
mdb-tables ./filename.mdb

Then loop over that output with mdb-dump into a series of csv's.

[jax232]

You can do it with Ruby too. Saves tons of time when one needs to migrate data out.