Transfer *.dat file to Microsoft Access 97

[Cowboysooner]

How do I import or convert a 500 megabyte file with extension *.dat to Microsoft Access 97. Access says the file is an unrecognized database format. Excel, wordpad and notepad are able to read the file but it is much too large to fully open within these programs.

 

[Maquis]

500 meg? Yikes! :-0 I'd be scared to try and import it into Access. Do you have SQL server? If so try that route.

However if you insist on trying to shove it into Access you should be able to import it by telling Access it is a text file. In the open file dialog select the text file type (.txt, .prn, etc). I don't think .dat is an option so it won't show up in your file list, but just type in the name of the file and Access will still find it.

Oh yeah, you could always temporarily change the extension on the file to .txt. Maq B-)
<insert witty signature here>

 

[Cowboysooner]

Thank you for your help Maquis. I don't have SQL server but I was able to get around the unrecognized database error message by changing the extension from *.dat to *.txt and importing it as a table into a newly created but empty Access database.

The file is too large for Access 97. I will attempt to cram it into Acess 2002 next.

Thanks for your help.