Importing Date Data as Text - Tab Delim to Access

Question

I have a tab-delimited output from an outside program. One of the fields is (non-negotiable) is of #/#, that is 1/1, 1/2, 3/5 etc (represents part one of two, three of five etc).

Access is wrongly interpreting this as a date, where it needs to interpret it as a text. If I tell access to store it as a date (view the Type of field in the table) it still does not import properly.

How do I tell access, in the import stages, "interpret this field as TEXT"?

Answer 1

Assuming you are using the Import Wizard you should be able to specify the data type for each field in the source file. If it is a text file you can even create an "Import Specification" for the file where you indicate which fields to import and their data types. The import spec can be saved for future use if this will be a file format you need to work with in the future. You can also use the import spec via VBA if you use the Docmd.TransferText method.