This tutorial demonstrates how to import an Excel file into an Access database. You can also follow these same steps to import other data tables into Access, such as dbf files or txt files, with some minor variation. This document uses some standard database terminology, referring to columns as fields and rows as records.

Working with data in Microsoft Access databases can be preferable to working with spreadsheets for a number of reasons. One database file can hold several tables, which makes consolidating and organizing data easier. Databases are also great for calculating summaries and aggregating data more efficiently than a spreadsheet. Access is a relational database, which means that you can bring related data stored in different tables together to summarize and calculate data; a feat that a spreadsheet like Excel cannot perform. Databases are a necessity when working with large datasets, as spreadsheets have a limit of 65,000 records. Finally, Microsoft Access databases are compatible with ArcGIS, as tables within Access databases can be directly accessed by ArcGIS and added to ArcMap. Tables can then be joined to boundary files based on a common field, and the data within the tables can be mapped. This is highly preferable to working with table in the dbf file format, which has very particular syntax rules that makes them difficult to work with. Access databases can also serve as geodatabases for holding boundary files and data tables (for instructions on importing shapefiles into Access, see the Import Shapefiles to Access tutorial).

NOTE – if you plan to eventually use a database as a geodatabase, for holding geospatial data and tabular data, and you are using ArcGIS 9.2, you MUST create the database within Arc Catalog by right-clicking in the table of contents, clicking new, and new personal geodatabase. You cannot import geospatial data into an Access database that was not created with ArcGIS 9.2. If you plan on using the database for just holding and working with tabular data, or you are using an earlier version of ArcGIS (8.3 to 9.1), you can safely create a database within Access, Windows Explorer, or ArcGIS, and it will work as a geodatabase.

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