I'm trying to come up with the best way to use procedures and UDF calls to import some data occasionally from an Access database. I have no problems getting the data from the Access server in the UDF and saving it to the external file. I also don't have any problems creating the external table definition and inserting the data into my own tables.

My problem is that I can't see any way to unlock the external file for multiple imports without dropping and re-creating the external table definition each time. In a multi-user environment, I would have to create a unique table name based on the user.

Does creating and dropping external tables increment the DDL count of the database?

Is it safe during regular operation with multiple users?

Are there any better ideas in how to accomplish this?

TIA

Woody (TMW)

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