mdb-import(1)

💖 mdb-import(1) — bestie edition 💖

okay so this is the mdb-import page, and it lives in section 1 of the manual (that's Executable programs or shell commands, iykyk). grab a snack, we're importing CSVs into an MDB database and it's gonna be adorable. 🍓

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✨ NAME ✨

mdb-import — Import CSV data into an MDB database. that's the whole vibe. 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

mdb-import [-H lines] [-d char] database table csvfile
mdb-import -h|--help
mdb-import --version

three whole moods: do the import, ask for help, or check the version. pick your fighter. 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So mdb-import is a utility program that ships with MDB Tools, no cap. 🌈

What it does: it reads a CSV (comma separated value) file and adds the data into a table of a database. that's it, that's the job, and it ate. 👑

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -H, --header lines — skip this many lines of CSV header. bye bye header row, you were iconic but we don't need you. 🎀
• -d, --delimiter char — specify an alternative column delimiter. the default is , (comma). so if your file is doing semicolons or tabs or whatever, this is your moment. ✨
• --version — print the mdbtools version and exit. short and sweet, love that for you. 💜

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✨ NOTES ✨

literally nothing here bestie — the original has an empty NOTES section and we respect its silence. 🤫 (this heading is just chilling, no content, no drama, we move.) 🧚

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✨ ENVIRONMENT ✨

These are the environment variables, and they are lowkey important:

• MDB_JET3_CHARSET — defines the charset of the JET3 (access 97) file. the default is CP1252. see iconv(1). 🌸
• MDBICONV — defines the input charset to use for the SQL file. the default is UTF-8. heads up: mdbtools must have been compiled with iconv for this to work. 🫶
• MDBOPTS — a colon-separated list of options. here's the whole menu:
  • debug_like
  • debug_write
  • debug_usage
  • debug_ole
  • debug_row
  • debug_props
  • debug_all is a shortcut for all debug_* options 🔥
  • no_memo (deprecated; has no effect — it's giving ghost, it does nothing) 💀
  • use_index (experimental; requires libmswstr) 🙈

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read these too, they're all part of the family: 🌈

mdb-array(1) mdb-count(1) mdb-export(1) mdb-header(1) mdb-hexdump(1) mdb-json(1) mdb-parsecsv(1) mdb-prop(1) mdb-queries(1) mdb-schema(1) mdb-sql(1) mdb-tables(1) mdb-ver(1)

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✨ HISTORY ✨

mdb-import first appeared in MDB Tools 0.7. a true OG. ⭐

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✨ AUTHORS ✨

The mdb-import utility was written by Brian Bruns. thank you king, we love you. 👑💖

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✨ BUGS ✨

mdb-import does not enforce any kind of checks. You can violate constraints. 😭

no cap, zero guardrails. it's giving unsupervised main character energy — the tool will just let you do it, so be careful bestie. 💀

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and that's the page!! 💅 this was MDBTools 1.0.1, dated 13 July 2026 — so when you're running mdb-import, that's the version and the date you're rocking with. slay, go import your CSV, and remember: header skipped, delimiter set, vibes immaculate. periodt. 🎀✨🦋💜