Special Edition Using Access 97, Second Edition

Understanding How Access Handles Tables in Other Database File Formats

Conventional desktop database development applications maintain each table in an individual file. Each file contains a header followed by the data. A header is a group of bytes that provides information on the file's structure, such as the names and types of fields, number of records in the table, and file length. When you create a table file in dBASE, FoxPro, or Paradox, for example, the file contains only a header. As you add records to the file, the file grows by the number of bytes required for one record, and the header is updated to reflect the new file size and record count.

Desktop RDBMSs create a variety of supplemental files, some of which are required to import, ...