Database help needed

[Emile van Sebille]

On 5/4/2009 4:30 PM Amber said...
> 
> My PHB is insane.
> 
> Today he drops 50,000 databases in MS Access format on my desk, and 
> tells me that by Friday I need to:
> * Remove all of the "junk content" in the record fields;
> * Remove all records with blank fields in them;
> * Correct all fields in which the markup is "wrong";
> * Correct all fields in which the data is "wrong";
> * Ensure that all database include some specific tables;
> ** Add appropriate content to the records in the "new" tables;
> 
> And finally, said databases are to be in:
> 
> * MS Access 97 format;
> * MS Access 2000 format;
> * MS Access 2003 format;
> ** Is there any documentation anywhere on what the differences between 
> those is?   Won't a database created for Access 97 be openable in MS 
> Access 2003?
> * SQLite format;
> * MySQL format;
> * PDB format, for use on his PalmPilot;
> * Commas separated values;
> * dBase 3;
> * Excell spreadsheets;
> * ODF spreadsheets;


It wouldn't surprise me that you couldn't do all this with open office 
using command line options which is where I'd start.  There's also 
python modules available, but I haven't yet gotten into them.  I found 
most of what I needed on groups.google.com though, so not having 
internet access could be trouble -- some of the conversion structures 
and requirements weren't quite so obvious nor documentation easily 
available.

Emile