Looking for an MS Access lookalike

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hello,

my crystal ball says that in the months ahead there shall be many, many tables that will need to be cross-checked and verified, and that whomever designed the data structures hereabouts must’a had a lot of fun.

In order to obtain the reports I need, I could use vlookup several times in each flat-file, but I would much rather be able to load all the flatfiles into one database and just merge relevant ones by the key fields. That is, I’d like to do something which Access does just fine.

Problem: MS doesn’t want to sell me Access by itself, but only bundled. I don’t want Project, don’t want Publisher, don’t want Outlook. And I don’t want to pay for a Mercedes when I’m actually buying a moped.

Do any of you guys know of a stand-alone program that will let me load and merge csv or txt files like this without having to get a Master’s in CS or pay for six programs I don’t need?

Thank you!

2

OpenOffice.org includes a database. There are other components as well, but at least you’re not paying for them.

3

Really? Amazon has it unbundled.

Perhaps it’s different over the pond?

4

How about SQL Server Express? It’s a free download.

5

I’ve used Open Office and it functions very much like Access. If you can use access, you should be able to make the switch easily.

It’s a simple, free download.

6

Last I checked (earlier this year), the OpenOffice Access equivalent didn’t have the ability to import data from a .csv. You may want to give it a close look.

7

Yeah, that’s basically my problem. There is a database, but it’s, shall we say, “undeveloped.”

Will try SQL Server Express and check out Amazon, thanks all.

8

OS Alt suggests Kexi

9

…as well as a bunch of other database offerings that might do the job, even if not directly equivalent (or aiming for that) to Access.