mdbgo

A read-only database/sql driver for Microsoft Access databases (.mdb and .accdb) written in Go. No Microsoft software, ODBC drivers, or OLE DB providers required.

mdbgo provides two drivers — a pure Go implementation and a CGo-based implementation backed by mdbtools.

Driver	Name	Backend	C compiler	Speed	Memory
Pure Go	"gomdb"	driver/gomdb	No	Faster	~45 KB/op
CGo	"cmdb"	driver/cmdb	zig cc	Fast	~2 KB/op

Both drivers are feature-equivalent and produce identical results — verified across 32,549 rows over 5 databases with 0 value differences.

Note: Both drivers are read-only — querying existing Access databases only, no writes.

Features

• Standard database/sql interface
• Full sqlx compatibility (StructScan, Select, Get, Named queries)
• Reads MDB (Jet 3/4) and ACCDB files
• No dependency on Microsoft Access, ACE/Jet OLE DB, or ODBC
• SQL queries: SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY, LIMIT, LIST TABLES, DESCRIBE TABLE
• Parameterized queries with ? placeholders
• All 15 Access column types with sql.Null* support
• Full column metadata (ColumnTypeDatabaseTypeName, ColumnTypeLength, ColumnTypeScanType)
• Unicode support (CJK, Arabic, etc.)
• Binary data and OLE object reading
• DateTime handling with time.Time
• LIKE pattern matching with Chinese/Unicode text

Installation

go get github.com/Felamande/mdbgo

Pure Go driver — "gomdb"

No C toolchain needed:

CGO_ENABLED=0 go build

CGo driver — "cmdb"

Requires a C compiler. zig cc recommended:

CC="zig cc" CGO_ENABLED=1 go build

No external C libraries needed — mdbtools is compiled in-tree.

Usage

import (
    "database/sql"
    _ "github.com/Felamande/mdbgo/driver/gomdb"  // pure Go
    // _ "github.com/Felamande/mdbgo/driver/cmdb" // or CGo
)

db, _ := sql.Open("gomdb", "path/to/database.mdb") // or "cmdb"

// Query with parameters
rows, _ := db.Query("SELECT ID, Name, Birthday FROM Users WHERE Age > ?", 18)

// sqlx struct scanning
type User struct {
    ID       int64     `db:"ID"`
    Name     string    `db:"Name"`
    Birthday time.Time `db:"Birthday"`
}
var users []User
sqlxDB.Select(&users, "SELECT * FROM Users")

Listing tables

rows, _ := db.Query("LIST TABLES")

Describing a table

rows, _ := db.Query("DESCRIBE TABLE MyTable")

Type Mapping

Access Type	Go Type	DatabaseTypeName()
Boolean	bool	"Boolean"
Byte	int64	"Byte"
Integer	int64	"Integer"
Long Integer	int64	"Long Integer"
Currency	float64	"Currency"
Single	float64	"Single"
Double	float64	"Double"
DateTime	time.Time	"DateTime"
Text	string	"Text"
Memo	string	"Memo/Hyperlink"
Binary	[]byte	"Binary"
OLE Object	[]byte	"OLE"
Replication ID	string	"Replication ID"
Numeric	string	"Numeric"
Complex	int64	—

Limitations

• Read-only — no INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or DDL operations
• No transactions — Begin() not supported
• Client-side parameter interpolation — ? placeholders are escaped and interpolated into the SQL string
• BIT/Boolean NULL — Access BIT fields cannot store NULL; NULL coerces to FALSE
• TEXT length — Unicode TEXT(n) columns report byte length (2×n)
• No IN (...) syntax — use multiple OR conditions instead
• Jet SQL only — advanced ACCDB SQL features may not be supported

Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Go application / sqlx                       │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  driver/gomdb/gomdb.go    driver/cmdb/cmdb.go
│  (pure Go, zero CGo)        (CGo + mdbtools) │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  internal/gomdb/           internal/cmdb/   │
│  19 .go files               C source + cgo   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Both backends parse Access database files directly — the pure Go driver is a ground-up port of mdbtools with no C dependencies, while the CGo driver wraps the original C library.

Project layout

mdbgo/
├── driver/
│   ├── cmdb/                 # CGo driver — registers "cmdb"
│   │   └── cmdb.go
│   └── gomdb/               # Pure Go driver — registers "gomdb"
│       └── gomdb.go
├── internal/
│   ├── cmdb/                 # CGo backend (bridge + mdbtools C source)
│   └── gomdb/               # Pure Go backend (MDB parser, SQL engine)
├── testdata/                 # .mdb test databases
└── temp/                     # Comparison harnesses

Requirements

• Go 1.26+
• CGo driver: C compiler (gcc, clang, or zig cc)
• Pure Go driver: no additional requirements

License

Go code: MIT License

This project embeds mdbtools under the LGPL-2.0-or-later. See internal/cmdb/mdbtools/COPYING.LIB.