Re: Access to Postgresql Utility

David Bryan <d_bryan_remove(at)onebox(dot)com> wrote in message news:<I4mY7(dot)1086$tu1(dot)420591758(at)newssvr11(dot)news(dot)prodigy(dot)com>...
> I am currently working on a MS Access to PostgreSQL utility. Since I could
> not find one I suppose I will either release it to the PostgreSQL folks or
> put it out as open source.

You might try http://sevainc.com/access/. There's an Access-based
converter there which does a reasonable job of converting Access to
PostgreSQL (providing there are no "funny" characters in the table,
field, or index names.

> What I am tring to discover is the maximum length table, field, index names
> can be. I want to make sure that I correct any problems during the SQL code
> generation.

Generally, the length limit on names is 31 characters. That can be
changed at compile time - which means it would be the default limit
for those users (including me) who simply install it from the binary
package (rpm, deb) of their choice.

> The idea is to make it easier to port Access applications to PostgreSQL
> rather than SQL Server.

A worthy goal, to be sure.

One "gotcha" to watch out for - PostgreSQL allows indexes on "text"
fields (unlimited-length strings), while Access does NOT do indexes on
its equivalent (memo). Because of this, Access will choke if you try
to create an ODBC link to a Postgres table with indexed text fields.
(one workaround is to create a view which includes the table in
question, since Access doesn't "see" indexes for tables in a view).

Calvin