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How to import CSV into Microsoft Access Database

1. Open or create a new database for the CSV data.

2. You may create a new table and prepare all the fields needed or you may just import the

CSV data to create the new table.

3. Go to the “External Data” tab on Microsoft Access, as shown in the Figure 1 below and

click on the “Text File”.

Figure 1

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4. The “Get External Data”, Figure 2 will be shown. Select the CSV file by clicking the

“Browse” button. (*Note: the file name must be less than 64 characters otherwise

Microsoft Access will not be able to import it).

Figure 2

5. After selecting the CSV file, if you created your own table, choose the “Append a copy of

the records to the table.” option and select the table from the dropdown list. If you did

not create your own table then you will need to choose “Import the source data into a

new table in the current database.” option. After selecting the option, press “OK” to

continue.

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6. Next, make sure the option “Delimited – Characters such as comma or tab separate

each field” is selected as shown in Figure 3 and click “Next”.

Figure 3

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7. Next, make sure “Comma” is selected in the “Choose the delimiter that separates your

fields” and the double quotes symbol “ is selected in the “Text Qualifier” as shown in

Figure 4 and click “Next” to continue.

*Note: Users who created their own table with their own field names may skip the rest and

click “Next” or “Finish” to complete the import in step 7.

Figure 4

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8. In this window (Figure 5), choose the field and type in the field name for each of the

column for the CSV data and click “Next” to proceed.

Figure 5

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9. In this step, you may choose to add a primary key to the table, choose a field as a

primary key or no primary key for the table. Adding a primary key to the table will add

another column on the left, choosing a field as a primary key will let users to choose a

field from the dropdown list as the primary key. You will have to choose based on how

you use the table. After selecting your option, click “Next” or “Finish” to complete the

import.

Figure 6

10. Done.

Notes: We are using Microsoft Access 2010 to demonstrate the step-by-step guideline. Some variants in screen capture and

step may be observed for other Access version.