Access “Compact and Repair” programmatically

Question

Is it possible to "compact and repair" an Access database programmatically somehow (using ADOX, using OleDbConnection etc.)?

Answer 1

Sample code for VBScript.

Dim objEngine
Dim objProcess
'Dim objDB
Dim strDb1

Dim strPath
Dim strFile
Dim strDAOversion
Dim strApplicationName
Dim strErr

Dim strMsg
Dim FSO

strPath = "C:\Docs\"

strFile = "Some.mdb"
strDb1 = strPath & strFile

Set FSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

strDAOversion = "DAO.DBEngine.36"
strApplicationName = "Some.mdb"

strMsg = "About to perform a COMPACT on "
strMsg = strMsg & chr(10) & chr(10)
strmsg = strMsg & strApplicationName
strMsg = strMsg & chr(10) & chr(10)
strmsg = strmsg & "Please ask everyone to EXIT THE SYSTEM."
strMsg = strmsg & chr(10) & chr(10)
strmsg = strmsg & space(12) & "It is VITAL you do not exit windows until"
strMsg = strMsg & chr(10)
strMsg = strMsg & space(12) & "you receive the confirmation message."
strMsg = strmsg & chr(10) & chr(10)
strMsg = strMsg & space(6) & "Press OK to continue or Cancel to stop the process."


If MsgBox(strMsg, 1, strApplicationName) = 1 Then

  Set objEngine = WScript.CreateObject(strDAOversion)

  Call CompactDB(FSO, objEngine, strDb1, "password")

  If strErr="True" Then
    strMsg = "Please correct the problem and try again."
    MsgBox strMsg, 1, strApplicationName
  Else
    strMsg = "Database compacting complete."
    MsgBox strMsg, 1, strApplicationName
  End If
End If


Function CompactDB(objFSO, objEngine, strDb, pwd)

'Compact the database

Dim strdbtemp
Dim MsgText

strdbtemp = Left(strDb, Len(strDb) - 3) & "ldb"

If FSO.FileExists(strdbtemp) = True Then 'if ldb file exists, db is still open.
MsgText = "You have not exited the file. Please close and try again."
MsgBox MsgText, 1, strApplicationName
strErr="True"
Exit Function
End If

If FSO.FileExists(strDb1) = False Then
MsgText = "Cannot locate the database at " & strDB
MsgBox MsgText, 1, strApplicationName
strErr="True"
Exit Function
End If

strdbtemp = Left(strDb, Len(strDb) - 3) & "tmp"

If pwd = "" Then
objEngine.CompactDatabase strDb, strdbtemp
Else
objEngine.CompactDatabase strDb, strdbtemp, , , ";pwd=" & pwd
End If

If Err = 0 Then
FSO.deletefile strDb
FSO.copyfile strdbtemp,strDb
FSO.deletefile strdbtemp
Else
MsgText = "Error during COMPACT process for " & strDB
MsgBox MsgText, 1, strApplicationName
strErr="True"
End If

End Function

Answer 2

I don't have enough rep to reply to a previous "answer", but I wanted to provide some info that might be helpful to someone else in regards to the OP's question.

I have been using the JRO method for years to compact/repair my Access 2000 databases from VB.net. Every once in a blue moon, I have a client that has managed to corrupt a database (usually when connected to the database over a network and they suffer an unexpected network interruption). JRO (in my experience) works fine, as long as the database IS NOT CORRUPTED. I never could figure out why the database COULD be repaired if I used the Access application to do it, but when using MY application (which uses JRO), the compact/repair would always fail (database is in an unrecognized format).

So, after coming across this thread just an hour ago, I dropped a reference to DAO into my app and tried out its ability to repair a corrupted database as I just today had a client corrupt their database (third time its happened in about 8 years). Guess what, DAO was able to repair the database when JRO failed!

OK, so that is my experience with JRO vs. DAO. Hope it helps. Here is a piece of sample code for using CompactDatabase from DAO:

Dim dbCorrupt As String = "c:\CorruptedDB.mdb"
Dim dbRepaired As String = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(dbPath), Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(dbPath) & "_Repaired.mdb")

Dim dao As New dao.DBEngine
dao.CompactDatabase(dbCorrupt, dbRepaired)

Answer 3

Add ref to: Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.x Library Microsoft Jet and Replication Objects 2.x Library

sDB = "c:\DB\myDb.mdb"
sDBtmp = "c:\DB\tempMyDb.mdb"
sPASSWORD = "password"

Dim oApp As Access.Application
Set oApp = New Access.Application
Call oApp.DBEngine.CompactDatabase(sDB, sDBtmp, dbLangGeneral, , ";pwd=" & sPASSWORD)

'wait for the app to finish
        DoEvents
'remove the uncompressed original
        Kill sDB
'rename the compressed file to the original to restore for other functions
        Name sDBtmp As sDB

Answer 4

This solution works with the Access 2010 Database Engine:

Required reference:

Microsoft.Office.interop.access.dao

Code:

public void CompactDb(
    string sourceFilePath, string destFilePath, string password)
{
    var dbEngine = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Access.Dao.DBEngine();

    dbEngine.CompactDatabase(sourceFilePath, destFilePath,
        ";pwd=" + password, null, ";pwd=" + password);
}

(The sourceFilePath and destFilePath should not be the same!)

CompactDatabase method parameters (from reflection):

void CompactDatabase(
    string SrcName, string DstName,
    object DstLocale = Type.Missing,
    object Options = Type.Missing,
    object SrcLocale = Type.Missing);

Make sure you run it under the same platform as the AccessDatabaseEngine (or Office) you installed (x86/x64).

Answer 5

Here is the official MS link, any further comments would be redundant. DBEngine.CompactDatabase Method

Answer 6

it'possible compacting and repairing an MS ACCESS database in two ways:

• using DAO: in DAO350 there's a method RepairDatabase(), while in DAO360 there's CompactDatabase()
• using MDAC+JRO:

As an example, in VB6 (old, old, old...) do this:

Dim jro As jro.JetEngine
Set jro = New jro.JetEngine
jro.CompactDatabase "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=c:\db_to_repair.mdb;Jet OLEDB:Database Password=mypass", _ 
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\repaired_db.mdb;Jet OLEDB:Engine Type=4;Jet OLEDB:Database Password=mypass"

As you will notice, the function requires that you specify the name of the db to be repaired and the name of the repaired database.