Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational Access Database Engine (ACE) with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft 365 suite of applications, included in the Professional and higher editions or sold separately.

Quick facts: Developer(s), Initial release, Stable release... ▼

Microsoft Access

Microsoft Office Access 2021 running on Windows 10
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	November 1992; 31 years ago (1992-11)
Stable release(s)
Microsoft 365 (Windows) 2309 (Build 16827.20130)[1] / September 28, 2023; 54 days ago (2023-09-28) Microsoft 365 (Mac) 16.77.1 (Build 23021201) / September 19, 2023; 2 months ago (2023-09-19)[2] One-time purchase 2021 / October 5, 2021; 2 years ago (2021-10-05)[3]
Written in	C++ (back-end)[4]
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Type	RDBMS
License	Trialware
Website	www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/access

Microsoft Access stores data in its own format based on the Access Database Engine (formerly Jet Database Engine). It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases.[5]

Software developers, data architects and power users can use Microsoft Access to develop application software. Like other Microsoft Office applications, Access is supported by Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), an object-based programming language that can reference a variety of objects including the legacy DAO (Data Access Objects), ActiveX Data Objects, and many other ActiveX components. Visual objects used in forms and reports expose their methods and properties in the VBA programming environment, and VBA code modules may declare and call Windows operating system operations.