# Connecting to MS Access DB using ODBC package

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [March 10, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584 "2017-03-10T04:00:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Crghilardi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/crghilardi/32/3738_2.png) [@Crghilardi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Crghilardi)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 4:00am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584/1 "2017-03-10T04:00:18Z")

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Hi folks,

I have been using Julia casually for a few months now, I am not a trained programmer in any form.  
I am completely stumped on getting the ODBC package working to connect to a single access DB(.accdb) file.

I am trying to replicate something I have working in python where I built the connection strings and then passed them to PyODBC.

I see ODBC.connect() being used from forum posts online, but it doesn’t seem to be a method anymore?

I have read through both versions of the documentation and still cannot get the syntax correct.  
What I have so far:

```
using ODBC

cnxn_str = "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)};Dbq="
db = "C:/Path/To/Folder/Scrap.accdb"

#conc. strings
dsin = "$cnxn_str$db"

conn=ODBC.DSN(dsin)

```

Can I use the ODBC package in this manner or do I need to actually make the file DSN in windows?  
What is the correct syntax to connect to a standalone MS access database file?

The access and excel drivers shows up when I run listdsns() so that seems to be working.  
I am using Julia 0.5.0 on windows 10, and have the latest version of ODBC.jl installed (0.5.1)

Thank you for your help.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Crghilardi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/crghilardi/32/3738_2.png) [@Crghilardi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Crghilardi)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2017, 2:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584/2 "2017-04-09T02:03:57Z")

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I ended up figuring it out (even though it took a while…).

I uninstalled then re-installed the x64 version of MS access engine [Link to MS help site with download](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Access-2010-specifications-1e521481-7f9a-46f7-8ed9-ea9dff1fa854?CorrelationId=c1a82bf1-158b-428c-ba84-7accd4ada158&ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&ocmsassetID=HA010341462)

Following that, I can write it as:

```julia
cnxn_str=ODBC.DSN("Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)};
 DBQ=C:Path/To/Folder/Scrap.accdb") #build dsn first

ODBC.query(cnxn_str,"SELECT * FROM Table1") #query to pull table in as dataframe

```

and now everything seems to be functioning properly.

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**Author:** ![lungben](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lungben/32/12314_2.png) [@lungben](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lungben)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 9:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584/3 "2021-06-21T09:43:44Z")

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Sorry to revive this old thread, but I also struggle to get data from Access to Julia.  
The method described above does not work anymore because `ODBC.DSN` does not exist anymore in the current version of ODBC.jl.

I tried to directly create a Connection object using the Connection String, e.g.

```julia
con = ODBC.Connection(raw"Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)}; DBQ=c:/temp/Input_data.accdb")

```

but this (and variations of it I tried) does not work.  
The driver itself is visible in the “ODBC Data Source Administrator” in Windows.  
I am using Access 2016 32-bit in Win 10.

Has anyone recently got this working and could help me?

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**Author:** ![hellemo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/hellemo/32/324_2.png) [@hellemo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/hellemo)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 11:04am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584/4 "2021-06-21T11:04:45Z")

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This isn’t exactly what you asked, but I’ve been using JDBC to read from Access. While it does add a java dependency, it has the advantage of avoiding the whole 32-bit/64-bit architecture issue.

This (unregistered) package can be used to test, or for inspiration on how to set up with the UCanAccess driver: [GitHub - hellemo/Access.jl: Julia support for MS Access database files via JDBC and UCanAccess](https://github.com/hellemo/Access.jl)

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**Author:** ![lungben](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lungben/32/12314_2.png) [@lungben](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lungben)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 12:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584/5 "2021-06-21T12:03:16Z")

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Looks great, thanks!  
I am not restricted to use ODBC, any way to get data from Access diretctly to Julia is fine for me.  
I encounter an error when building and created an Issue for it, it would be great if you could take a look.

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**Author:** ![aalexandersson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/aalexandersson/32/2927_2.png) [@aalexandersson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aalexandersson)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584/6 "2021-06-21T13:48:45Z")

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I have not tried but I am aware of some of the likely setup issues: Do you you have 64-bit Win? Can you connect to that Access 32-bit app from something else than Julia?

32-bit ODBC is difficult to configure for 64-bit Win. My ODBC solution required separate symbolic links for 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC, as described in this article (you can ignore the Oracle specifics):

[http://realfiction.net/2009/11/26/use-32-and-64bit-oracle-client-in-parallel-on-windows-7-64-bit-for-e-g-net-apps](http://realfiction.net/2009/11/26/use-32-and-64bit-oracle-client-in-parallel-on-windows-7-64-bit-for-e-g-net-apps)

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**Author:** ![hellemo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/hellemo/32/324_2.png) [@hellemo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/hellemo)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584/7 "2021-06-21T14:46:24Z")

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Sorry about that, looks like I made some mistakes when transitioning to using Artifacts. I’ll have a closer look later, until then you might want to give an earlier version a try (0.2.1 I think), where the jar-files are bundled directly.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lungben](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lungben/32/12314_2.png) [@lungben](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lungben)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/connecting-to-ms-access-db-using-odbc-package/2584/8 "2021-06-21T15:36:46Z")

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Thank you, it is working for me with v0.2.1.