{"id":21676,"library":"pandas-access","title":"pandas-access","description":"A tiny, subprocess-based tool for reading a MS Access database (.mdb/.accdb) as a Pandas DataFrame. Version 0.0.1. No recent updates; experimental and likely unmaintained.","status":"deprecated","version":"0.0.1","language":"python","source_language":"en","source_url":"https://github.com/jbn/pandas_access","tags":["access","microsoft-access","pandas","dataframe","legacy"],"install":[{"cmd":"pip install pandas-access","lang":"bash","label":"PyPI install"}],"dependencies":[{"reason":"Required for DataFrame output","package":"pandas","optional":false}],"imports":[{"note":"Importing pandas_access alone does not expose read_access; must import the function explicitly.","wrong":"import pandas_access","symbol":"read_access","correct":"from pandas_access import read_access"}],"quickstart":{"code":"from pandas_access import read_access\ndf = read_access('/path/to/database.mdb', table='my_table')\nprint(df.head())","lang":"python","description":"Read a table from a Microsoft Access database file into a pandas DataFrame. Requires the database file path and table name. Depends on mdbtools being installed on the system."},"warnings":[{"fix":"Consider using pyodbc with the Microsoft Access ODBC driver on Windows, or mdbtools directly on Linux.","message":"This library is unmaintained and no longer recommended. It relies on subprocess calls to mdbtools, which may not be installed or available on all systems.","severity":"deprecated","affected_versions":"all"},{"fix":"Install mdbtools: on Linux: 'sudo apt-get install mdbtools'; on macOS: 'brew install mdbtools'; on Windows not supported.","message":"Requires external system dependency mdbtools. Not installed automatically; must be installed separately (e.g., apt-get install mdbtools on Debian/Ubuntu).","severity":"breaking","affected_versions":"all"},{"fix":"Use pyodbc with MS Access ODBC driver on Windows instead of this library.","message":"Only works on Windows if mdbtools is installed via Cygwin or similar, which is non-trivial. Not natively compatible with Windows.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":"all"}],"env_vars":null,"last_verified":"2026-04-27T00:00:00.000Z","next_check":"2026-07-26T00:00:00.000Z","problems":[{"fix":"Install mdbtools: sudo apt-get install mdbtools (Linux) or brew install mdbtools (macOS).","cause":"The mdbtools command-line tools are not installed on the system.","error":"FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'mdb-tables'"},{"fix":"List available tables using 'mdb-tables database.mdb' and use the exact table name (case-sensitive).","cause":"The table name is incorrect or the database file is corrupted.","error":"subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['mdb-export', '...', 'table']' returned non-zero exit status 1."}],"ecosystem":"pypi","meta_description":null,"install_score":null,"install_tag":null,"quickstart_score":null,"quickstart_tag":null}