To start using MySQL, good planning is important as there are some incompatibilities between Access and MySQL. One of the two important data incompatibilities we have to get rid of is the column type and data format. Although most of the column types in Access and MySQL are compatible with each other, the capacity of specific column type may differ. For example, the type varchar in Access is not the same with the type varchar in MySQL. Access's varchar holds more characters then that of MySQL. In this case, we have to use text in MySQL to hold Access's varchar instead.
A typical example of the need to modify data during migration from Access to MySQL is the Date Format. In Access, date is stored as MM-DD-YYYY. In MySQL, the date is stored as YYYY-MM-DD. Care has to be given to those fields during conversion.
Other points we have to take into consideration are the differences in the built-in functions, user defined functions and maintenance, etc.
After a simple introduction on what needs to be addressed before migration, it seems that there a lot which we have to do for the migration. However, the real story can be much simplified with the help on some database administrative tools.
Currently, there are a wide variety of tools available in the market to suit our needs. Here I will look into Navicat which I personally think stands out from the crowd.
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