Link to TXT File Inside of Zip File from Access

Question

I'd like to link to a txt file while its inside of a zip file, is this possible through VBA? I have over 40 text files that are 300-400MB each unzipped and I'd like to access them at any time for any given queries we may have to run. This program is not scheduled to be rewriten to an RDBMS for quite some time which will negate the need for this naturally.

Answer 1

Not possible. Unless you want to write a Custom ODBC Driver

Out of the box, Access can not link to zip files.

Here is a list of formats which are support for Importing and Linking:

╔══════════════════╦════════╦═════════════════╗
║      Format      ║ Import ║      Link       ║
╠══════════════════╬════════╬═════════════════╣
║ Microsoft Excel  ║ yes    ║ yes (read only) ║
║ Microsoft Access ║ yes    ║ yes             ║
║ ODBC Databases   ║ yes    ║ yes             ║
║ Text or CSV      ║ yes    ║ yes (add only)  ║
║ SharePoint List  ║ yes    ║ yes             ║
║ XML              ║ yes    ║ yes             ║
║ Data Services    ║ yes    ║ yes (read only) ║
║ HTML Document    ║ yes    ║ yes             ║
║ Outlook Folder   ║ yes    ║ yes             ║
╚══════════════════╩════════╩═════════════════╝

References

• Office Support: Import data into an Access database