Extract Data
The Extract Process is used to create an Extract File. An Extract File contains the selected set of related rows from one or more tables. An Extract File on disk can be used as one or both sources for a Compare Process.
If Move is installed, the definitions of the tables and related objects may also be extracted. However, any Extract File may be used by both products regardless of which was used to create it. Compare ignores the object definitions and uses only the data for the Compare Process.
The Extract File can be used repeatedly and simultaneously by many users.
Extract File
An Extract File is created by traversing a set of tables and extracting specific data from those tables. The tables and the relationships to use to traverse those tables are specified in an Access Definition. You can use specifications from an existing Access Definition, create a new Access Definition, or specify temporary definitions.
The Access Definition also includes other specifications, such as:
- Manual selection of specific rows in the Start Table. This selection process is referred to as Point-and-Shoot.
- Selection criteria for one or more tables.
- A maximum number of rows to extract for one or more tables.
- A numeric value used to determine random selection. For example, select every twentieth row.