How do you connect to an access database to vb6?

Answer 1

There are plenty of ways you can do this. The 2 most common would be a Data Control, which will give you a record navigator just like in access, you can bind this to a Data Bound List, Grid or Combo Box to display it.

The other way would be to use ADO directly in VB code. Both are pretty similar, and theres only a couple of steps to connect it all up.

To use the Data control, First Create a new VB6 project and goto the Project -> Components menu. In here check the item "Microsoft Data Bound Grid Control 5.0" and click OK.

Now you can drag out both the "Data" control, and the "Data Bound Grid". On your new Data1 control, you can set the path to your access database and what table or query you want to use. Then you can select your DBGrid1 control and set it's "Data Source" to "Data1".

This is fine for something basic, but anything more advanced you're going to want to use code.

First step, go to www.connectionstrings.com and make a connection string for your database. This is where you select what type of database you're using (in this case, Access), and where you set your database password, file location and advanced options.

Now, Create a new VB6 project and goto the Project -> References menu. In here find and check the "Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.6" library.

Now double click on the form to get to the Form_Load event, and add the following.

Dim oCon as New ADODB.Connection

Dim oRs as New ADODB.Recordset

oCon.Open "Connection String"

oRs.Open "SELECT * FROM TABLE", oCon, adOpenKeyset, adLockOptimistic

Now you can use the data from the query "SELECT * FROM TABLE" in code. Use oRs!FieldName to access each field's value, and use the oRs.MoveNext, .MovePrevious, .MoveFirst & .MoveLast functions to navigate around.

Eg

' Connect to the database in the same folder as the application

oCon.Open "Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};Dbq=" & App.Path & "\Data.mdb;Uid=Admin;Pwd=;"

' Grab only the fields & data we need to work with.

oRs.Open "SELECT Name, Price, Views FROM Products WHERE Stock > 0", oCon, adOpenKeyset, adLockOptimistic

' Loop until we get to the end of the table

Do Until oRs.EOF

' $5.00 - Chips

List1.AddItem "$" & Format(oRs!Price, "###0.00") & " - " & oRs!Name

' Add 1 to this items "views" counter

oRs!Views = oRs!Views + 1

' Move to the next record

oRs.MoveNext ' Move to the next record

Loop