Deleting data in linked table not supported by this ISAM

[Guest]

Hello,
I wish to use a delete query in access to delete certain records from a
table linked to an excel spreadsheet. However, i have been receiving the
following message.

"Deleting data in a linked table is not supported by this ISAM".

How do i resolve this issue? I'm not familiar with ISAM at all.

Thank you

 

[John Nurick]

That's the way it is, unfortunately. Deleting records in linked Excel
table would mean deleting cells in the sheet, which isn't something that
can be done blindly without a real risk of screwing up stuff elsewhere
in the worksheet or workbook - so the Excel ISAM driver doesn't do it at
all.

Deletion can be faked (up to a point) by "deleting" records by using an
update query to set all their fields to NULL. Or you can write Excel VBA
code that finds the relevant records, clears the cells they occupy (same
as using an update query to null them), and then rearranges the data and
resets the range used by the linked table.

 

[Guest]

Hi John,
Thanks a million for your reply. Is it possible to use some form of ODBC to
get around it? I've heard about the Template Wizard with Data Tracking in
excel, do you think this might work?

 

[John Nurick]

I don't think so: any other driver would face the same problems. Can you
reverse things, and keep the data in Access, with the Excel sheet
retrieving it from there when required?