# Excel to Access Import Problem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-to-access-import-problem/172644>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 2, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-to-access-import-problem/172644 "2003-05-02T15:33:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-to-access-import-problem/172644/1 "2003-05-02T15:33:05Z")

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We are converting from Excel to Access for our inventory information. The Access database is built, tested and ready to go. Instead of re-keying all the data that resides in Excel I am attempting to import the Excel spreadsheet into the appropiate Access table (as an append, some data has been keyed to Access). I have formatted the Excel spreadsheet so that the column headings exactly match the Access field names, have assigned a range name to the spreadsheet data that I want to import to this particular table, and have attempted the import using Access File…Get External Data…Import.

I get an Access message that says “An error occured trying to import c:\directory\subdirectory\file.xls. The file was not imported.” Access will not even give me a clue as to why. Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-to-access-import-problem/172644/2 "2003-05-02T15:41:42Z")

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Are the columns matched up correctly? Is there data that won’t go into a column correctly (i.e. you’re trying to put text into an integer-only column…).

Try importing the data into a new table that you create just for this purpose, and then do an append query from the temp table to the permenant table.

Zev Steinhardt

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**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-to-access-import-problem/172644/3 "2003-05-02T18:26:23Z")

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Thanks, Zev. Looks like option 2, importing to a new table, is going to work. Still no idea why it will not import & append to the existing table unless Access is assigning a different data type to a particular field than I did. I do have some text fields which contain numbers, but that’s on purpose. 'Twould be nice if Access would tell me that. Just another useless MS error message.