How to create Microsoft Access database in C# programmatically?

The simplest answer is to embed an empty .mdb / .accdb file in your program and write it out to disk.

The correct answer is to use COM Interop with the ADOX library:

var cat = new ADOX.Catalog()
cat.Create(connectionString);

Remember to generate your connection strings using OleDbConnectionStringBuilder.


Try:

using ADOX; //Requires Microsoft ADO Ext. 2.8 for DDL and Security
using ADODB;

public bool CreateNewAccessDatabase(string fileName)
{
bool result = false; 

ADOX.Catalog cat = new ADOX.Catalog();
ADOX.Table table = new ADOX.Table();

//Create the table and it's fields. 
table.Name = "Table1";
table.Columns.Append("Field1");
table.Columns.Append("Field2");

try
{
    cat.Create("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" + "Data Source=" + fileName + "; Jet OLEDB:Engine Type=5");
    cat.Tables.Append(table);

    //Now Close the database
    ADODB.Connection con = cat.ActiveConnection as ADODB.Connection;
    if (con != null)
    con.Close();

    result = true; 
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    result = false;
}
cat = null;
return result;
} 

http://zamirsblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/creating-access-database.html


On my computer, Windows 7 sp1 Professional 64-bit, I found Microsoft ADO Ext. 2.8 for DDL and Security in C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\ado\msadox28.dll.

It is also found as a reference:

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which is included as ADOX in the references

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By default, columns are created as text[255]. Here are a few examples to create columns as different datatypes.

table.Columns.Append("PartNumber", ADOX.DataTypeEnum.adVarWChar, 6); // text[6]
table.Columns.Append("AnInteger", ADOX.DataTypeEnum.adInteger); // Integer 

I found this list of datatypes to create and read access database fields

Access Text = adVarWChar

Access Memo = adLongVarWChar

Access Numeric Byte = adUnsignedTinyInt

Access Numeric Integer = adSmallInt

Access Numeric Long Integer = adInteger

Access Numeric Single Precision = adSingle

Access Numeric Double Precision = adDouble

Access Numeric Replicatie-id = adGuid

Access Numeric Decimal = adNumeric

Access Date / Time = adDate

Access Currency = adCurrency

Access AutoNumber = adInteger

Access Yes / No = adBoolean

Access HyperLink = adLongVarWChar