MS Access import

[rousing]

Hi

I just upgraded to Eview 8 and get the following two error messages when I either chose 1: 'open - foreign data as workfile' and select an existing MS Access .mdb database or 2: run the following code 'wfopen(type=access) "C:\Temp.mdb" Table01'

My Microsoft Office package is running on 32-bit and I have the AccessDatabaseEngine 32-bit package installed.

I hope you can provide some details on how to proceed with these issues and thank you in advance for your assistance.

Best regards
Rasmus Rousing

[EViews Steve]

Did you happen to upgrade to EViews 8 64-bit?

When you import data into EViews using the two methods you described, EViews uses ODBC to connect to the Access database.

If you are using EViews 8 64-bit, you will need to install the 64-bit ODBC drivers for Microsoft Access. You can go to this Microsoft page to download both the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of the Access 2010 Database Engine: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... x?id=13255
Just click on the Download button to select which version you want.

You can verify that the proper driver is installed by launching the ODBC Administrative Tool (run the tool at: C:\Windows\System32\odbcad32.exe), then go to the Drivers tab. You should see the "Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb)" driver.

(On a 64-bit Windows machine, this tool shows the list of installed 64-bit ODBC drivers. If you want to see what 32-bit ODBC drivers are installed on 64-bit Windows, you need to run the 32-bit version of the admin tool here: C:\Windows\SysWow64\odbcad32.exe)

Steve

[rousing]

Thank you very much for your assistance - yes I have the 64-bit version of Eviews 8 installed, as this is part of a corporate roll-out, but since this is creating the conflict I will try to have it replaced with the 32-bit version instead, untill the rest of corporate MS office is also running on 64-bit...

[EViews Steve]

Just a quick note,

A lot of users are going to find themselves in this situation, where EViews is 64-bit and Office isn't, or vice versa. We've tried to provide the 64-bit users the ability to use other 32-bit applications which is why a lot of 32-bit components are made available even under the 64-bit install.

But in the case of data import, you need to have matching ODBC drivers installed and a lot of Windows 64-bit installations only have a few default ones pre-installed. I think you'll find that if you install the 64-bit ODBC drivers for Access, you should be able to use EViews 64-bit for pretty much everything...

Maybe we should include the Microsoft 64-bit ODBC drivers as part of our installation as well.

Steve

[rousing]

Initially, I also thought this might work and I removed the 32-bit AccessDatabaseEngine and tried to install the 64-bit version instead, however, I was unable to do this as the installer requires Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 to be removed first...

[EViews Steve]

Ah, I forgot about that problem.

I don't know why Microsoft restricts users of Office 32-bit from using the 64-bit ODBC drivers and vice-versa. Seems rather silly.

In any case, you are correct. You will need to use our EViews 8 32-bit in order to import your Access files if you have Office 32-bit installed.

I do know that if you had an older version of Office 32-bit (like Office 2007), then Office 2010 and newer would allow you to install the 64-bit version side by side with the older Office. It just doesn't want you to have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office 2010 and up.

At least we allow you to have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of EViews installed on the same machine.

Steve