How to import XML with nested nodes (parent/child relationships) into Access?

Question

I\'m trying to import an XML file into Access but it creates 3 unrelated tables. That is, the child records are imported into the child table, but there is no way of knowing

Answer 1

What you need to do is transform your XML data into a format that works better with Access. Specifically, you need to insert the parent key value (assuming that it is C_NOT in this case) into each child node.

The following XSLT file will do that for you

That will transform your XML from this ...

    8404180
    Abalos Nuevo
    Francisco José
    
        
            23
            0888
            1984-12-01
            1986-09-19
        
        
            14
            0569
            1990-09-17
            1995-03-15
        
        
            21
            0412
            1995-03-30
            
        
    

... into this:

    
        8404180
        Abalos Nuevo
        Francisco José
        
            8404180
            23
            0888
            1984-12-01
            1986-09-19
        
        
            8404180
            14
            0569
            1990-09-17
            1995-03-15
        
        
            8404180
            21
            0412
            1995-03-30
            
        
    

... in the background while Access is importing it.

Save that XSLT file to your hard drive (I called mine "transformio.xslt"), then start the Access XML import process. Once you've selected your XML file to import, click the "Transform" button ...

... add your newly-created XSLT file to the list and select it ...

When you click "OK" and return to the "Import XML" dialog, you can expand the tree view to see that you now have C_NOT values in both tables.

When the import is complete you will still have two tables, but now you can JOIN them on C_NOT to get a "flat" view of the data:

which gives us