How can I read in a TXT file in Access that is over 255 char/line and contains control char? - ms-access

Question

I am running Access 2010. I need to read in a TXT file into a string. Each line can be anywhere from 40 to 320 char long, ending in a CR. The biggest problem is the TXT file of various lines contains comma's (,) and quotations (") as part of the data.
Is there a trick to doing this? Even if it is getting each char, and testing to see if it is a CR....

Answer 1

To accomplish this task, you will need to write your own import code that will read directly from the file. The Microsoft Access import features will not handle a file like this very well, and since you want to analyze each line in code, it is better to handle reading it yourself.
There are many approaches you can take, and all will involve File handles and Opening the file. But, the best approach is to use a class that does all of the dirty work for you.
One such class is the LargeTextFile class that can be found in any of the Microsoft Access Developer's Handbooks (Volume 1) for Access 97, 2000, 2002 or 2003, written by Getz, Litwin, and Gilbert (Sybex), if you have access to one of them.
Another option would be the clsReadTextFile class, available for free on the Access MVP Site (The Access Web) site:
http://www.theaccessweb.com/downloads/clsReadTextFile.txt
Using clsReadTextFile you can process your file, line by line using code similar to this:
Dim file As New clsReadTextFile
Dim line As String
file.FileName = "C:\MyFile.txt"
file.cfOpenFile
Do While Not file.EndOfFile
file.csGetALine
line = file.Text
If InStr(line, "MySearchText") Then
'Do something
End If
Loop
file.cfCloseFile
The line string variable will contain the text of the line just read, and you can write code to parse it how you need and process it appropriately. Then the loop will go on to read the next line. This will allow you to process each line of the file manually in your code.

Answer 2

It is not clear from your post as to whether or not you can - or have tried - to use the tools available in the product for this task. Access 2010 offers linking to a .txt file as well as appending a .txt file to a table. These are standard features in the External tab of the ribbon.
The Large Text (formerly Memo) field type allows ~4K characters. Not sure if you wish to attempt to bring in all the txt data into a single field - if so then this limit is important.
If the CRs of the text document imply a new record/row of data - rather than a continuous string for the entire document - - AND - - - if there is any consistent structure within all rows of data - then the import wizard can use either character count or symbols (i.e. comma if they exist) - as the means to separate/segregate each individual row of data into separate fields in a single row of a table.