How to create an Access database at runtime in C#?

by

The first thing you need to do is get a COM reference to the Microsoft ADO Ext. X.X for DDL and Security. The X.X represents whatever version you happen to have on your machine. Mine used to be version 2.7, but with Visual Studio 2008, it was updated to 6.0.

alt text http://blog.jrpsoftware.com/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/CreateanAccessDatabaseinC_10DDD/AddReference_2.png

Once you have added the reference, ADOX will be added to the using section of your code.

alt text http://blog.jrpsoftware.com/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/CreateanAccessDatabaseinC_10DDD/Using_2.png

Next you will want to create the catalog for the database. Insert the filename you wish into the following string and pass it to the CatalogClass.

CatalogClass cat = new CatalogClass();  
string tmpStr;  
string filename = "Sample.MDB";   
tmpStr = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;";   
tmpStr += "Data Source=" + filename + ";Jet OLEDB:Engine Type=5";  
cat.Create(tmpStr);

The next step is to create the table and columns for your database. This is a pretty straight forward operation as shown in the example below. 

 Table nTable = new Table(); 
 nTable.Name = "PersonData"; 
 nTable.Columns.Append("LastName", DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 25);
 nTable.Columns.Append("FirstName", DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 25);
 nTable.Columns.Append("Address 1", DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 45);
 nTable.Columns.Append("Address 2", DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 45); 
 nTable.Columns.Append("City", DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 25);
 nTable.Columns.Append("State", DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 2);
 nTable.Columns.Append("Zip", DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 9);
 cat.Tables.Append(nTable);

The final step is very important or you will get error when you close your application. Once the all the tables and columns have been added, you will need to release the com objects properly and in the proper order.

System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(nTable); 
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(cat.Tables);    
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(cat.ActiveConnection); 
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(cat);

That is it. You should now have a Access Database that you can write to. Hope this helps.

Reference: John Russell Plant – Create an Access Database in C#

More Related Contents:

  1. How to create Microsoft Access database in C# programmatically?
  2. How to insert an image into an Access OLE field via .NET
  3. Persist Security Info Property=true and Persist Security Info Property=false
  4. Retrieve List of Tables in MS Access File
  5. How To Access Two Databases in a Single connection String in C#?
  6. import csv file to sql database in c# window application without header row [duplicate]
  7. Using parameters inserting data into access database
  8. Writing large number of records (bulk insert) to Access in .NET/C#
  9. OLEDB Parameterized Query
  10. The ‘Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0’ provider is not registered on the local machine while data export to MS ACCESS
  11. Bulk-deleting in LINQ to Entities
  12. How do I connect to an .mdf (Microsoft SQL Server Database File) in a simple web project?
  13. What’s wrong with these parameters?
  14. Local database, I need some examples
  15. How to connect to a MS Access file (mdb) using C#?
  16. How can I update a cell value in a dB table, using SQL Server CE and C# (Visual Studio 2010)
  17. Received an invalid column length from the bcp client for colid 6
  18. When executing a stored procedure, what is the benefit of using CommandType.StoredProcedure versus using CommandType.Text?
  19. How to COUNT rows within EntityFramework without loading contents?
  20. How do I test database-related code with NUnit?
  21. Check if list contains item from other list in EntityFramework
  22. Entity Framework core – Contains is case sensitive or case insensitive?
  23. Can I commit changes to actual database while debugging C# in Visual Studio?
  24. Refresh button – Refreshing data grid view after inserting, deleting, updating
  25. Will a using block close a database connection?
  26. How to use String property as primary key in Entity Framework
  27. What is the fastest way to read data from a DbDataReader?
  28. Is it possible to perform joins across different databases using LINQ?
  29. SQL connection string for microsoft access 2010 .accdb
  30. Do we have transactions in MS-Access?

Leave a Comment