ASP.NET, SQL Server, WPF, C#, VB.NET

I am hoping someone out there can help me.  I importing excel spreadsheets 
 
into an access database.  The excel files will be updated monthly so I am 
 
linking them.  However, when I do link them, for some reason the data type 
 
changes and I get mismatch errors when I run queries.  I know for a fact that 
 
before I link the sheets, I change the cell format in excel to text.  But 
 
once I get it to access it is in Number format.  I have tried changing the 
 
format in excel after the file is linked but the excel sheet already says 
 
that it is in text format.  The only thing that works is to import the file 
 
without linking it so that I can change the format after it is in access. 
 
This will be a huge pain because I will have to do this every month and 
 
rewrite all of my queries and realtionships.  Is there anything I can do to 
 
keep the format from changing?

Hi Perplexed, 
 
This is a regular source of frustration. The Jet database engine used by 
 
Access applies subtly different rules when linking and when importing; 
 
either way it pays virtually no attention to Excel cell formats. 
 
When the problem is a column with a mix of numeric and non-numeric 
 
values, a reliable fix is to prefix the numeric values with an 
 
apostrophe, e.g. 
 
'1234 
 
instead of 
 
1234 
 
This forces both Excel and Access to treat the value as a string of 
 
digits and not a number. The apostrophe doesn't show up in the workbook 
 
(only in the formula bar) or in Access. This Excel VBA procedure will 
 
add apostrophes to numeric values in selected cells: 
 
Sub AddApostrophes() 
 
Dim C As Excel.Range 
 
For Each C In Application.Selection.Cells 
 
If IsNumeric(C.Formula) Then 
 
C.Formula = "'" & C.Formula 
 
End If 
 
Next 
 
End Sub 
 
On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 08:41:31 -0700, PerplexedinKY 
 
<PerplexedinKY@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: 
 
-- 
 
John Nurick [Microsoft Access MVP] 
 
Please respond in the newgroup and not by email.