How to extract the schema of an Access (.mdb) database?

Question

I am trying to extract the schema of an .mdb database, so that I can recreate the database elsewhere.

How can I pull off something like this?

Answer 1

If you're happy to use something other than pure Access SQL, you could persist a collection of ADOX objects and use those to recreate the table structure.

Example (in Python, doesn't currently recreate relationships and indexes as it wasn't needed for the project I was working on):

import os
import sys
import datetime
import comtypes.client as client

class Db:
    def __init__(self, original_con_string = None, file_path = None,
                 new_con_string = None, localise_links = False):
        self.original_con_string = original_con_string
        self.file_path = file_path
        self.new_con_string = new_con_string
        self.localise_links = localise_links

    def output_table_structures(self, verbosity = 0):
        if os.path.exists(self.file_path):
            if not os.path.isdir(self.file_path):
                raise Exception("file_path must be a directory!")
        else:
            os.mkdir(self.file_path)
        cat = client.CreateObject("ADOX.Catalog")
        cat.ActiveConnection = self.original_con_string
        linked_tables = ()
        for table in cat.Tables:
            if table.Type == u"TABLE":
                f = open(self.file_path + os.path.sep +
                         "Tablestruct_" + table.Name + ".txt", "w")
                conn = client.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
                conn.ConnectionString = self.original_con_string
                rs = client.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
                conn.Open()
                rs.Open("SELECT TOP 1 * FROM [%s];" % table.Name, conn)
                for field in rs.Fields:
                    col = table.Columns[field.Name]
                    col_details = (col.Name, col.Type, col.DefinedSize,
                                   col.Attributes)
                    property_dict = {}
                    property_dict["Autoincrement"] = (
                        col.Properties["Autoincrement"].Value)
                    col_details += property_dict,
                    f.write(repr(col_details) + "\n")
                rs.Close()
                conn.Close()
                f.close()
            if table.Type == u"LINK":
                table_details = table.Name,
                table_details += table.Properties(
                    "Jet OLEDB:Link DataSource").Value,
                table_details += table.Properties(
                    "Jet OLEDB:Link Provider String").Value,
                table_details += table.Properties(
                    "Jet OLEDB:Remote Table Name").Value,
                linked_tables += table_details,
        if linked_tables != ():
            f = open(self.file_path + os.path.sep +
                     "linked_list.txt", "w")
            for t in linked_tables:
                f.write(repr(t) + "\n")
        cat.ActiveConnection.Close()

A similar reverse function reconstructs the database using the second connection string.