Re: How to import Informix into MS Access?

cdr@xteam.co.at (Chris Drauch) wrote: >Mike Segel wrote >> >>Andrew Holme wrote: >>> >>> We have some Informix 4.1.0 files (DAT and IDX extensions). We need to >>> convert them to MS Access format but have no Informix software at all. >>> We bought an ODBC driver but could not use it because it needed to talk >>> to a back-end server. Does anybody know if there is anything out there >>> which can read/convert the files? >> >>Sounds like you got the database but don't own informix. > >C-ISAM? There is no database you have to own ... just the runtime license. > >>To convert you need to write a simple C program and have >>knowlege of the DBSCHEMA. > >Isn't so simple. How to convert data types like dec/date etc without the >C-ISAM developer kit? Your best bet is to get hold of a runtime license for Informix SE ver 4.1 from Informix. You need do no programming as you can easily export the data to flat files. The next best is C-ISAM as stated. You need to write C-programs to do it. Your last alternative is to read the files (the .dat files only). This isn't very easy, but it can even be done using MS-Access (or VB). The file format isn't impossible to find out of. Look at the files with hd (Unix hex dump command) or some other way that shows you the binary data. Rows are fixed length with a single line feed character at the end of each except for deleted rows. The line feed is than a null byte (0 hex). Each field has a fixed size. Dates are a simple integer counting days from 31.12.1989 or there about. Decimals are base 100 numbers with an exponent. Base 100 means you need to look at each byte which represent a digit from 0 to 99. I don't know the details of the exponent, but it should be possible to find out. Do get an SE runtime. That's simple.