Reading a MapInfo TAB File with .accdb (Microsoft Access)

Question

I have a MapInfo TAB consisting of 5 files: .tab, .map, .id, .aid, .accdb

The attributes seem to be stored in the .accdb Microsoft Access database file.

Using GDAL 3.5.0 on Windows 10 installed via the QGIS Standalone Installer Version 3.26.

If I point ogrinfo to the .tab file or the containing directory, all I get is "Unable to read datasource ...".

The list of drivers includes "MapInfo File".

The .tab (File With Ümlauts.tab) file reads (censored/changed, UUIDs replaced):

!table
!version 1000
!charset WindowsLatin1

Definition Table
  File "File With Ümlauts.accdb"
  Type ACCESS TABLE "File_With_Ümlauts" Charset "WindowsLatin1"
  Fields 9
    Some_Field Char (3) ;
    some_area Integer ;
    some_Text Char (50) ;
    A_Number Float ;
    Another_Something Char (12) ;
    And Float ;
    More Char (4) ;
    fields Float ;
    in_Various_cases Char (8) ;
begin_metadata
"\DefaultStyles" = [stripped for publication on GIS.SA]
"\MapInfo" = ""
"\MapInfo\TableID" = "5303f130-f5fd-11ec-b939-0242ac120002"
"\MapInfo\ParentTableID" = "181772f4-c235-4b27-810b-eb91f71a1611"
"\IsReadOnly" = "FALSE"
end_metadata

I installed the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable but that did not magically fix it.

It allowed me to add the .accdb file as ODBC data source in Windows and read it as non-spatial data source with OGR though:

C:\Temp\>ogrinfo odbc:gdaltest -so -al
INFO: Open of `odbc:gdaltest'
      using driver `ODBC' successful.

Layer name: File_With_Ümlauts
Geometry: Unknown (any)
Feature Count: 1
Layer SRS WKT:
(unknown)
MAPINFO_ID: Integer (10.0)
Some_Field: String (3.0)
some_area: Integer (10.0)
some_Text: String (50.0)
A_Number: Real (0.0)
Another_Something: String (12.0)
And: Real (0.0)
More: String (4.0)
fields: Real (0.0)
in_Various_cases: String (8.0)

I searched the list of installed OSGeo4W packages with osgeo4w-setup and spotted nothing relevant missing with the terms "access", "odbc", "mapinfo", "tab" or even "mdb".

(How) Can one read a MapInfo File in GDAL or QGIS that has its attributes in an Microsoft Access .accdb?

Answer 1

Looks like the GDAL driver doesn't support Access as a table type. Code here:

https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/blob/35c07b18316b4b6d238f6d60b82c31e25662ad27/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/mitab/mitab_tabfile.cpp#L691

seems to accept NATIVE, LINKED, or DBF. I think with "NATIVE" the attributes are in the .DAT file. What you might have to do is:

1. Convert the relevant Access database to DBF.

2. Change the .tab file to get its attributes from the DBF. I think this means removing the "File" line and changing the "Type" to Type DBF. If your DBF has the same name as the TAB file it should then find it.

I just tried doing this sort of surgery and managed to splice a shapefile .DBF into a .TAB file and it seemed to come out of anaesthetic okay...