odd database format - question

jimsau

Perch
I have a database I need to convert to access so I can make use of it. It is part of a product ordering service which uses their own little program to order from the db.

It created an ODBC file using "Adaptive Server Anywhere" drivers

The file is a .db file

It contains (when viewed with notepad) "WATCOM International Corp"

I need to figure out how to open it to convert it to access for use.

Any ideas?
 
jimsau said:
I have a database I need to convert to access so I can make use of it. It is part of a product ordering service which uses their own little program to order from the db.

That appears to be a SyBase database file. There are some utilities on the Sybase site, and also some articles in the Microsoft support site on bridging between the two formats. I'm not sure how to do this, but I'm confident there must be a way.
 
Sybase was all I could find as well but I found no utilities as of yet to convert it or view it.
 
jimsau said:
It created an ODBC file using "Adaptive Server Anywhere" drivers

Check in your "ODBC Data Sources" from Control Panel. If the driver is present, you should be able to directly import the tables in MS Access, once you set up a DSN for it.

riley
 
riley said:
Check in your "ODBC Data Sources" from Control Panel. If the driver is present, you should be able to directly import the tables in MS Access, once you set up a DSN for it.

The driver is present but I am far from an expert on databases so I have no idea how to do it especially when I cannot open the file and view the structure to know what and how to convert it. I was lucky to figure out access as far as I did. :)
 
jimsau said:
The driver is present but I am far from an expert on databases so I have no idea how to do it especially when I cannot open the file and view the structure to know what and how to convert it. I was lucky to figure out access as far as I did. :)

I'm no expret either, but I think I can help you make a little progress. If you set up a DSN for the database using the driver you have, you can learn a few things about the database. That's not to say you can find out everything, but perhaps you can learn enough to move ahead. Once the database is available through ODBC, you can create a new database in MS Access and import the tables from the old database. The thing I'm not sure about is how you can get the relationships. But knowing what tables are in the old database might get you started.

In ODBC Data Sources (from Windows Control Panel), set up a User DSN, pointing to the sybase db and using the sybase driver. I don't use ODBC very often, so I can't be more specific about this task, but the wizard-like process makes most of it pretty self-evident.

Once that's done, go to MS Access and create a new database. Then go to the Tables tab, click the New button and choose Import Table. A file dialog will open. At the bottom, you will see a dropdown of file-types (*.mdb, *.dbf, etc.). In the list (usually at the bottom), you will find ODBC. Select that and another dialog will show. This dialog allows you to select a data source. The DSN you set up for the sybase file should be in the list. Select it and Access should show you all the tables and allow you to import them.

As I stated before, this will allow you to import the tables, but I'm not sure how you can get the relationships. I don't know how much help this is for you, but perhaps it will move things along a little.

riley
 
I'm having the same problem. I have a .db file that, when viewed with notepad, indicates it's a WATCOM database file. I want to unpack this file and output it to a flat file but all methods I've tried thus far have failed.

I've tried using Access to import the file using a Sybase ODBC driver but I get an error that the database is not of a Sybase type. Please help!
 
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