Microsoft KB Archive/252908

Knowledge Base

How To Create a Table with Primary Key Through ADOX

Article ID: 252908

Article Last Modified on 7/1/2004

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.1
• Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.1 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.1 Service Pack 2
• Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5
• Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.6
• Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.7
• Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q252908

SUMMARY

ADOX is an extension to ActiveX Data Objects that allows the manipulation of the database schema. This article illustrates how to use ADOX to create a table and add a Primary Key.

MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: Not all OLE DB providers support the interfaces required to support ADOX methods. With those providers, you have to use Data Definition Queries or another object model to manipulate the database schema.

The first procedure in the example below creates a new table in an existing Microsoft Access database, creates a new field in that table, then creates a primary key index. When adding a single-field primary key, you do not need to use the ADOX Key object.

The second procedure utilizes the ADOX Key object to add a multiple field key to a table.

Steps to Create the Sample Application

1. In Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 or 6.0, create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.
2. On the Project menu, select References to add the following type libraries:

   Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.1 Library
   Microsoft ADO Ext. 2.1 for DDL and Security

3. Add two Command buttons (Command1 and Command2) and the following code to the Form1:

   Option Explicit
   
   Private Sub Command1_Click()
   '
   ' This code adds a single-field Primary key
   '
   Dim Cn As ADODB.Connection, Cat As ADOX.Catalog, objTable As ADOX.Table
   
     Set Cn = New ADODB.Connection
     Set Cat = New ADOX.Catalog
     Set objTable = New ADOX.Table
   
     'Open the connection
     Cn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=biblio.mdb"
       
     'Open the Catalog
     Set Cat.ActiveConnection = Cn
   
     'Create the table
     objTable.Name = "Test_Table"
       
     'Create and Append a new field to the "Test_Table" Columns Collection
     objTable.Columns.Append "PrimaryKey_Field", adInteger
       
     'Create and Append a new key. Note that we are merely passing
     'the "PimaryKey_Field" column as the source of the primary key. This
     'new Key will be Appended to the Keys Collection of "Test_Table"
     objTable.Keys.Append "PrimaryKey", adKeyPrimary, "PrimaryKey_Field"
   
     'Append the newly created table to the Tables Collection
     Cat.Tables.Append objTable
   
   ' clean up objects
     Set objKey = Nothing
     Set objTable = Nothing
     Set Cat = Nothing
     Cn.Close
     Set Cn = Nothing
   End Sub
   
   Private Sub Command2_Click()
   '
   ' This code adds a multi-field Primary Key
   '
   Dim Cn As ADODB.Connection, Cat As ADOX.Catalog
   Dim objTable As ADOX.Table, objKey As ADOX.Key
   
     Set Cn = New ADODB.Connection
     Set Cat = New ADOX.Catalog
     Set objTable = New ADOX.Table
     Set objKey = New ADOX.Key
   
     Cn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=biblio.mdb"
     Set Cat.ActiveConnection = Cn
     objTable.Name = "Test_Table2"
     
     objTable.Columns.Append "PrimaryKey_Field1", adInteger
     objTable.Columns.Append "PrimaryKey_Field2", adInteger
       
     objKey.Name = "PrimaryKey"
     objKey.Type = adKeyPrimary
     objKey.Columns.Append "PrimaryKey_Field1"
     objKey.Columns.Append "PrimaryKey_Field2"
     
     objTable.Keys.Append objKey
     
     Cat.Tables.Append objTable
   
   ' clean up objects
     Set objKey = Nothing
     Set objTable = Nothing
     Set Cat = Nothing
     Cn.Close
     Set Cn = Nothing
   End Sub
                           

   NOTE: You might have to adjust the connect string to point to a valid Jet database.

4. Run the application and click the Command buttons. You can check the table definitions for Test_Table and TestTable2 in Microsoft Access 97, Microsoft Access 2000, or the Visual Basic Visual Data Manager add-in.

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

317867 HOW TO: Create a Microsoft Access Database Using ADOX and Visual Basic .NET

305271 How To Perform Paging with the DataGrid Windows Control by Using Visual Basic .NET

Keywords: kbhowto kbjet KB252908

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