Dos into Access

[flourdude]

I am wanting to find out if it is possible to import an inventory program (that is only accessible in DOS) to Access.
My sister has a bookstore and all her book information/inventory is in a POS Dos program. I am wanting to import that information into Access. Is that possible and if it is, how does one do that?



TIA

Brad

 

[calian]

Depends largely on the format in which the data is stored. Many DOS programs stored data in dBase compatible forms. That's one that Access can easily read and import.

Remember that you're not importing the application or the program, just the data files.

 

[UncleJack]

Yes, it depends on the data storage technique. Older, DOS based programs often stored their information in delimited text format. If you can view any of the files and it is delimited then it will be immediately apparent. It will also be apparent if the storage is in fixed width files. It's really too broad a scope to write a users guide on how to convert these files, so the short answer is yes, it's likely that you can convert these data. Check your DOS based application and see if it has a facility for exporting the data to a standard format like delimited text. Then you can import it directly into Access. More obscure formatting may be compatible with Excel which has an excellent set of import filters. In extreme cases you may have to write a custom specification based on inspection of the data format.


Uncle Jack

 

[ErikZ]

Not only is the answer "Yes" but it's pretty darn easy. Have you even tried?