I have a .csv file that contains more than 256 rows. Is
there a way to import the first 256 rows into one table,
and then import row 1 and rows 256-510 into a second
table, and link them using row 1 as the relationship?
Do you mean 256 *columns* perhaps? There is no limit on the number of
rows that you can import.
If you do in fact mean columns, then I know this can be done, but it
won't be easy. I am not certain whether you can use customized text
import to skip 255 columns; you might instead have to write VBA code
to open the file and parcel its data into recordsets.
In any case, a one-to-one Query is still limited to 255 fields. You
will need to construct a properly normalized set of tables (with
multiple records rather than multiple fields for the repeated fields
which almost surely exist in your file) and migrate the data into
these tables.
John W. Vinson[MVP]