Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help

This article describes how to connect Tableau to a Microsoft Access file (*.mdb, *.accdb) and set up the data source. Tableau supports all Access data types except OLE Object and Hyperlink.

Before you begin

Before you begin, gather this connection information:

• Access file name.

• If the file is password protected, you need the database password.

• If the file has workgroup security, you need workgroup security credentials:

  • Workgroup file name

  • User

  • Password

Use this connector with Tableau Desktop on a Windows computer.

Driver required

This connector requires a driver to talk to the database. If the driver is not installed on your computer, Tableau displays a message in the connection dialog box with a link to the Driver Download(Link opens in a new window) page where you can find driver links and installation instructions.

Make the connection and set up the data source

1. Start Tableau and under Connect, select Microsoft Access, select the Access file that you want to connect to and then select Sign In.

   • Password protected – If the Access file is password protected, select Database Password and then enter the password.

   • Workgroup security – If the Access file is protected by workgroup security, select Workgroup Security, and then enter the Workgroup File name, User and Password into the corresponding text fields.

2. On the data source page, do the following:

   1. (Optional) Select the default data source name at the top of the page, and then enter a unique data source name for use in Tableau. For example, use a data source naming convention that helps other users of the data source figure out which data source to connect to. The default name is automatically generated based on the file name.

   2. Drag a table to the canvas. You can drag a table or query.

   3. Select the sheet tab to start your analysis.

      Use custom SQL to connect to a specific query rather than the entire data source. For more information, see Connect to a Custom SQL Query.

Note: If the Access file contains columns that are more than 254 characters wide, Tableau can't use these fields. Either remove the columns from the table or modify them to fit within 254 characters prior to connecting with Tableau.

See also

• Set Up Data Sources – Add more data to this data source or prepare your data before you analyse it.
• Build Charts and Analyse Data – Begin your data analysis.