ACC: How to Recover a Table Deleted from a Database

ID: Q179161

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Access versions 7.0, 97

SUMMARY

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

This article shows you how to create a sample Visual Basic for Applications function that you can use to recover a table deleted from a Microsoft Access for Windows 95 and Microsoft Access 97 database under the following conditions:

The database has not been closed since the deletion of the table.

The database has not been compacted since the deletion of the table.

The table was deleted using the Microsoft Access user interface.

NOTE: If multiple tables have inadvertently been deleted, this function recovers only the last table that was deleted. The other tables are lost.
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MORE INFORMATION

The following sample function recovers the last table deleted within a Microsoft Access database. To create the sample function, follow these steps.

NOTE: These steps assume that you are creating the sample function for future use. If instead you are adding the code directly to a database in which a table has recently been deleted, skip step 1, because if you have closed Microsoft Access or the database, the deleted table is not recoverable.

Open your database in Microsoft Access.

In the Database window, click the Modules tab, and then click New.

Type or paste the following code in the module that you have just created:

NOTE: In the following sample code, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character indicates that the code continues from one line to the next. You can type lines that contain this character as one logical line or you can divide the lines of code and include the line continuation character. For additional information refer to the Microsoft Access 97 Readme File(Acread80.wri). This file is installed by default in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office folder.


    Function undo()

      Dim db As Database, strTablename As String
      Dim i As Integer, StrSqlString As String

      Set db = CurrentDb()

      For i = 0 To db.TableDefs.Count - 1

      If Left(db.TableDefs(i).Name, 4) = "~tmp" Then
         strTablename = db.TableDefs(i).Name
         StrSqlString = "SELECT DISTINCTROW [" & strTablename & _
           "].* INTO MyUndeletedTable FROM [" & strTablename & "];"
         DoCmd.SetWarnings False
         DoCmd.RunSQL StrSqlString
         DoCmd.SetWarnings True
         MsgBox "A table has been restored as MyUndeletedTable", _
           vbOKOnly,"Restored"
         GoTo Exit_undo
      End If
      Next i
      MsgBox "No Recoverable Tables Found", vbOKOnly, "Not Found"

      Exit_undo:
         Set db = Nothing
         Exit Function
      Err_undo:
         MsgBox Err.Description
         Resume Exit_undo

    End Function

On the Debug menu, click "Compile and Save All Modules" (or in Microsoft Access for Windows 95, on the Run menu click "Compile All Modules"; then on the File menu, click "Save All Modules").

Save the Module as RecoverTable.

To test this function, type the following line in the Debug window, and then press ENTER:


?Undo()

REFERENCES

For more information about TableDefs, search the Help Index for "Tabledef Object."

Additional query words: Restore Delete Recover

Keywords : PgmHowto
Version : WINDOWS:7.0,97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto