Previous Topic

Next Topic

Book Contents

Book Index

Connecting to Text and CSV Files

AQT can be used to access structured text files, such as CSVs (files where the data is a set of comma-separated-variables). This gives you the ability for querying these files with a database-style interface.

Prerequisite software

No software is needed in order to access Text files. This is done using the Microsoft Text ODBC Driver which is present in the standard Windows install.

Signing onto a text file

You have two methods of signing accessing a Text file:

The first method is useful if you are accessing particular Text files on a frequent basis.

Setting up an ODBC Driver for your Text Files

The general procedure for this is described in Configuring a Database Connection.

Once you have done this, the ODBC Datasource name for your Text file will appear in the list of databases in the AQT sign-on window (make sure you have select Show All (not Show Recent)).

When you sign onto a Text datasource, you will see all the text (*.txt and *.csv) files in the specified directory. It is assumed that all your files are in the same format - eg. have the same column delimiter, and whether the first line has titles.

Open a csv file with AQT

To do this, right-click the csv file, select Open With > Choose Program. Click on Browse to select AQT. You can check Always use the selected program to open this kind of file if you want to always open csv files with AQT.

This method can only be used for csv files, and not any other file type.

When you use this connection method:

Using text datasources

Copy data from text files to a database table

The best option for this is to use the Data Loader. An alternate method is:

Advanced Query Tool
https://www.querytool.com
© 2023 Cardett Associates Ltd. All rights reserved.