Create an Access database at runtime

Problem/Question/Abstract:

How to create an Access database at runtime

Answer:

Solve 1:

Here is an OP function that will do it for you:

procedure CreateMSAccessDB(filename: string);
var
  DBEngine, Workspace: Variant;
const
  {Important to use the following constant as is}
  dbLangGeneral = '';
  LANGID = 0x0409;
  CP = 1252;
  COUNTRY = '0';
  dbVersion30 = 32;
begin
  DBEngine := CreateOleObject('DAO.DBEngine');
  {DBEngine := CreateOleObject('DAO.DBEngine.35'); For DAO 3.5}
  Workspace := DBEngine.Workspaces[0];
  try
    Workspace.CreateDatabase(filename, dbLangGeneral, dbVersion30);
  except
    on EOleException do
      ShowMessage('Database already exists');
  end;
end;


Solve 2:

It's very simple to create a empty Access-Database (*.mdb File) using OLE. It's not necessary to have MS-Access installed on your computer. If an exception occures the error message will returned. After creating the DB you can create Tables with simple SQL-Statements.

uses comobj, sysutils;

function CreateAccessDatabase(FileName: string): string;
var
  cat: OLEVariant;
begin
  result := '';
  try
    cat := CreateOleObject('ADOX.Catalog');
    cat.create('Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=' + Filename + ';');
    cat := NULL;
  except
    on e: Exception do
      result := e.message;
  end;
end;