How do I import mainframe reports into an Access database? Joey 06.07.2006 15:06:01 I'm using reports generated from mainframe accounting systems but am using an Access DB to generate reports. Currently the process of generating these reports by other means has been labor intensive. I'm hoping that Access will allow me a greater ease of report production with tremendous time savings. My manual and online Access help has returned no clear explanation. Current process: (1) Log into mainframe (2) Collect data for report (3) Save report query on the mainframe, C: drive, papercopy (4) Manipulate data to compile report (*time consuming part) What I would like to do is either import or link (if possible) these mainframe reports into Access to more readily manipulate the data into readible reports, quickly.

Re: How do I import mainframe reports into an Access database? "G. Vaught" <glvaught[ at ]hotmail.com> 07.07.2006 03:34:08 If the data coming out of the mainframe is ASCII text and delimited with comma's and quotes, then you can import the data to Access. If the format out of the mainframe is different, check to see if it can be exported to Excel first. Excel imports to Access quite easily if the data is defined correctly. By this I mean, a text field is all text and is treated as text; a numeric field is all numbers and no text is in the column. "Joey" <Joey[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:A60B172D-E04B-4FD0-BB5F-982F924D661E[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > I'm using reports generated from mainframe accounting systems but am using > an > Access DB to generate reports. Currently the process of generating these > reports by other means has been labor intensive. I'm hoping that Access > will > allow me a greater ease of report production with tremendous time savings. > My manual and online Access help has returned no clear explanation. > > Current process: > > (1) Log into mainframe > (2) Collect data for report > (3) Save report query on the mainframe, C: drive, papercopy > (4) Manipulate data to compile report (*time consuming part) > > What I would like to do is either import or link (if possible) these > mainframe reports into Access to more readily manipulate the data into > readible reports, quickly.

Re: How do I import mainframe reports into an Access database? "Joe Fallon" <jfallon1[ at ]nospamtwcny.rr.com> 08.07.2006 01:47:58 It is possible to directly link Access to the mainframe and manipulate the data. There are *many* issues with this - but it does work. About a decade ago I used Access to gather up the data in a few mainframe tables and imported it to Access where the accountants could then run 10-20 reports against it for thier monthly closing. Each report used to take hours on the mainframe and once the data was in Access (20 minutes) then each report could be run in seconds. A couple of tips: 1. You need to use the ODBC driver that talks to the mainframe as the way to link Acces to it. So you sghould have a regular program on your PC that already uses ODBC to talk to your mainframe. When you link Access use that one. 2. Once you get a some linked tables: do NOT open them up in Access - ever. It pulls a lot of data over the wire! Always use queries that return 1-5 rows when figuring out what is in a table. They are quite fast. 3. Write queries to extract tghe mainframe data into a local Access table and report off of that. -- Joe Fallon "Joey" <Joey[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:A60B172D-E04B-4FD0-BB5F-982F924D661E[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > I'm using reports generated from mainframe accounting systems but am using > an > Access DB to generate reports. Currently the process of generating these > reports by other means has been labor intensive. I'm hoping that Access > will > allow me a greater ease of report production with tremendous time savings. > My manual and online Access help has returned no clear explanation. > > Current process: > > (1) Log into mainframe > (2) Collect data for report > (3) Save report query on the mainframe, C: drive, papercopy > (4) Manipulate data to compile report (*time consuming part) > > What I would like to do is either import or link (if possible) these > mainframe reports into Access to more readily manipulate the data into > readible reports, quickly.

Re: How do I import mainframe reports into an Access database? Joey 08.07.2006 13:59:01 Thank you. Definitely worth a try on Monday. "Joe Fallon" wrote: [Quoted Text] > It is possible to directly link Access to the mainframe and manipulate the > data. > There are *many* issues with this - but it does work. > About a decade ago I used Access to gather up the data in a few mainframe > tables and imported it to Access where the accountants could then run 10-20 > reports against it for thier monthly closing. > Each report used to take hours on the mainframe and once the data was in > Access (20 minutes) then each report could be run in seconds. > > A couple of tips: > 1. You need to use the ODBC driver that talks to the mainframe as the way to > link Acces to it. > So you sghould have a regular program on your PC that already uses ODBC to > talk to your mainframe. > When you link Access use that one. > > 2. Once you get a some linked tables: do NOT open them up in Access - ever. > It pulls a lot of data over the wire! > Always use queries that return 1-5 rows when figuring out what is in a > table. > They are quite fast. > > 3. Write queries to extract tghe mainframe data into a local Access table > and report off of that. > > -- > Joe Fallon > > > > > "Joey" <Joey[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:A60B172D-E04B-4FD0-BB5F-982F924D661E[ at ]microsoft.com... > > I'm using reports generated from mainframe accounting systems but am using > > an > > Access DB to generate reports. Currently the process of generating these > > reports by other means has been labor intensive. I'm hoping that Access > > will > > allow me a greater ease of report production with tremendous time savings. > > My manual and online Access help has returned no clear explanation. > > > > Current process: > > > > (1) Log into mainframe > > (2) Collect data for report > > (3) Save report query on the mainframe, C: drive, papercopy > > (4) Manipulate data to compile report (*time consuming part) > > > > What I would like to do is either import or link (if possible) these > > mainframe reports into Access to more readily manipulate the data into > > readible reports, quickly. > > >

Re: How do I import mainframe reports into an Access database? Joey 08.07.2006 14:00:01 Thank you. "G. Vaught" wrote: [Quoted Text] > If the data coming out of the mainframe is ASCII text and delimited with > comma's and quotes, then you can import the data to Access. If the format > out of the mainframe is different, check to see if it can be exported to > Excel first. Excel imports to Access quite easily if the data is defined > correctly. By this I mean, a text field is all text and is treated as text; > a numeric field is all numbers and no text is in the column. > "Joey" <Joey[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:A60B172D-E04B-4FD0-BB5F-982F924D661E[ at ]microsoft.com... > > I'm using reports generated from mainframe accounting systems but am using > > an > > Access DB to generate reports. Currently the process of generating these > > reports by other means has been labor intensive. I'm hoping that Access > > will > > allow me a greater ease of report production with tremendous time savings. > > My manual and online Access help has returned no clear explanation. > > > > Current process: > > > > (1) Log into mainframe > > (2) Collect data for report > > (3) Save report query on the mainframe, C: drive, papercopy > > (4) Manipulate data to compile report (*time consuming part) > > > > What I would like to do is either import or link (if possible) these > > mainframe reports into Access to more readily manipulate the data into > > readible reports, quickly. > > >