Export from Access to FM Pro

[bbaliner]

Dear Import/Export specialists,

I want to import the Excell file into File Maker Pro 5.0 while creating field names on-the-fly. In other words, I don't wanna go through heartache of creating same fields in FM as in Excell.

The scheme that seems good is importing it first into Access (this will create fields on-the -fly in Access), do all my querying in Access, and then export it into FM Pro.

I have Local Data Access companion enabled, and File Maker Pro ODBC driver istalled.

I created a Data Source in the same folder as Access table, but got an error:

ODBC--call failed. Create Table statement is not supported.

So from this I understand that FM Pro doesn't suppport DDL statements at all? Is it not possible to create a table at run-time?

Thank you much

[andygaunt]

Do I read this right that you want to import an excel spreadsheet into FM Pro 5.

Why not just open filemaker and from within open the excel spreadsheet.

Or just drag the excel spreadsheet onto the Filemaker app icon.

This will then ask if the first row contains field names. Say yes and give the FMPro a filename.

Job done!

[danjacoby]

The funny part of this is that the easiest way to export from Access to FMP is to go through Excel.

Well, at least I'm laughing.

[bbaliner]

Haaaaaa!!

That's great, dragging into FM icon worked!

That is the coolest feature, thanks very much.

I guess conseptually this answers my question, everything is done trough Excel rather than Access. I would think that it's also possible to export directly to Excell, but this is not one of the options, I must go through DBF or text file. I think this is Excel's fault rather than FM's, because Excel doesn't read FM's format. Is this correct?

Thanks again for your help, this was very useful.

[andygaunt]

If you export as a merge file you will keep the field names.

good for mailmerge to word as well(obviously!)

You can also get filemaker data into external data straight into excel from pc via odbc or mac (microsoft offer a free plugin for this)

[kraftyman]

The problem seems to have been answered with the drag and drop of an excel spreadsheet into FMP.

I have an alternative approach. If you cannot bring Mohammed to the mountain then bring the mountain to Mohammed!

Set up the Excel file as the ODBC source and import the data into FMP rather than the other way around.

Ditto for Access, and many other sources.

I think it is significantly easier to get data INTO than OUT OF Filemaker....

[bbaliner]

krafty,

I see your point, but I can't import into File Maker, since I don't have the fields in the FM file. My whole thing was I wanted to avoid defining the fields, and wanted them to appear on the fly. When there's no fields in FM file, Import option is grayed out for me.

But drag and drop certainly works.

Thanks for the help

[danjacoby]

If the first row in Excel contains the fieldnames, then opening the file in FMP, thus creating a new FMP file, will create the fieldnames for you.

You really should try this!