DBASE Table File Format (DBF). Such as binary and memo fields are stored in a separate.dbt field. The values in the.dbf file are index 10-byte entries into the.dbt file. DBASE IV was released in late 1988. The dBASE product lost market share to competitors by being late to market with a version of dBASE for Windows. By this time, the. A The original (and only portable) dBASE IV solution is adding a hidden character field named DBASELOCK to the table. A There's really no sense in having a DBT file if you can't address the data inside. Platform: Windows Linux.
A file with the .DBF file extension is most likely a Database file used by the data management software dBASE. Data is stored within the file in an array with multiple records and fields.
Since the file structure is pretty straightforward, and the format was used early on when database programs first arose, DBF has been considered a standard format for structured data.
Esri's ArcInfo stores data in files that end in .DBF too, but it's called the shapefile attribute format instead. These files use the dBASE format to store attributes for shapes.
FoxPro Table files use the DBF file extension too, in the database software called Microsoft Visual FoxPro.
How to Open DBF Files
dBASE is the primary program used to open DBF files. However, the file format is supported in other database and database-related applications too, like Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Quattro Pro (a part of Corel WordPerfect Office), OpenOffice Calc, LibreOffice Calc, HiBase Group DBF Viewer, Astersoft DBF Manager, DBF Viewer Plus, DBFView, Swiftpage Act! and Alpha Software Alpha Anywhere.
You should save Microsoft Works database files in the dBASE format if you want to open them in Microsoft Excel.
GTK DBF Editor is one free DBF opener for macOS and Linux, but NeoOffice (for Mac), multisoft FlagShip (Linux) and OpenOffice work too.
Xbase mode can be used with Emacs to read xBase files.
ArcInfo from ArcGIS uses DBF files in the shapefile attribute file format.
The discontinued Microsoft Visual FoxPro software can open DBF files too, whether in the Database or FoxPro Table file format.
How to Convert a DBF File
Most of the software from above that can open or edit the DBF file can most likely convert it too. For example, MS Excel can save the DBF file to any format supported by that program, like CSV, XLSX, XLS, PDF, etc.
The same HiBase Group that releases the DBF Viewer mentioned above also has DBF Converter, which converts DBF to CSV, Excel formats like XLSX and XLS, plain text, SQL, HTM, PRG, XML, RTF, SDF or TSV.
DBF Converter can only export 50 entries in the free trial version. You can upgrade to a paid edition if you need to export more.
dbfUtilities exports DBF to file formats like JSON, CSV, XML, and Excel formats. It works through the dbfExport tool included in the dbfUtilities suite.
You can convert a DBF file online too, with DBF Converter. It supports exporting the file to CSV, TXT, and HTML.
More Information on dBASE
DBF files are often seen with text files that use the .DBT or .FPT file extension. Their purpose is to describe the database with memos or notes, in raw text that's easy to read.
NDX files are Single Index files that store field information and how the database is to be structured; it can hold one index. MDX files are Multiple Index files that can contain up to 48 indexes.
All the details on the header of the file format can be found on the dBASE website.
The release of dBASE in 1980 made its developer, Ashton-Tate, one of the biggest business software publishers in the market. It originally ran only on the CP/M microcomputer operating system but was soon ported over to DOS, UNIX, and VMS.
Later that decade, other companies began releasing their own versions of dBASE, including FoxPro and Clipper. This prompted the release of dBASE IV, which came around the same time as SQL (Structured Query Language) and the growing use of Microsoft Windows.
By the early 1990s, with xBase products still popular enough to be the leader in business applications, the top three firms, Ashton-Tate, Fox Software, and Nantucket, were purchased by Borland, Microsoft, and Computer Associates, respectively.
Still Can't Open Your File?
If your file isn't opening with the suggestions from above, double-check the file extension to make sure it actually reads as DBF. Some file formats use file extensions that are spelled similarly but are really in a totally different format and cannot open with DBF viewers and editors.
One example is DBX files. They might be Outlook Express Email Folder files or AutoCAD Database Extension files, but either way, they can not open with the same tools mentioned above. If your file doesn't open with those database programs, check to make sure you're not actually dealing with a DBX file.
![Linux Dbase Iv Dbt Linux Dbase Iv Dbt](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125607507/642780882.png)
If your file is really a DBK file, it might be in the Sony Ericsson Mobile Phone Backup file format. It can probably open with Sony Ericsson PC Suite or a file unzip tool like 7-Zip, but it won't work with the database applications above.
Name
dbview - View dBase III filesSynopsis
dbview [-b|--browse] [-ddelim| --delimiterdelim] [-e|--description] [-h|--help] [-i|--info] [-o|--omit] [-v|--version][-r|--reserve] [-t|--trim] dbfileDescription
Dbview is a little tool that will display dBase III files. You can also use it toconvert your old .dbf files for further use with Unix. It should also work with dBase IV files, but this is mostly untested.By default dbview displays the contents of a dBase III or IV database file. This is be done by displaying both the name of the field itself and itsvalue. At the end of every record a newline is appended.
Options
If no option given dbview only displays the database in its most friendly way.- --description, -e
- displays the field description of the database.
- --help, -h
- displays a complete (or short) help screen.
- --info, -i
- displays some (partially technical) information about the database like number of records and length of each record.
- --omit, -o
- omits displaying the whole database. Using this parameter can be useful if you're only interested in the structure.
- --reserve, -r
- Normally fieldnames are converted into a more friendly format. They are stored in capital letters, but that looks like shouting. This parameter supressesthe conversion.
- --trim, -t
- When this option is specified, leading and trailing spaces are omitted. This might be useful when in browse mode.
- --version, -v
- displays version and exits.
Notes
As dBase is DOS, umlauts are stored using a different code table (namely ASCII) than most modernunices (namely ANSI). If you encounter such a file, I would recommend piping the output through recode(1) with ibmpc:latin1 as it'sargument.If you want to examine the output generated by the browse mode, just take cut(1) and set its delimiter to the used delimiter or takeawk(1) and continue.
Copyright
Dbview is free software. It is based on routines from unknown source that I found onnic.funet.fi in /pub/msdos/languages/c as dbase.c. The file contained the following notice:These functions are provided by Valour Software as a gift.
I have modified and included this file and wrote a skeleton around it. All together provides a powerful tool for dBase III and IV database manipulationunder Unix.
I mainly have written this program, because I've got several dbase files containing important information for me. As I won't go running DOS everytime I needsome of the stored information, I had to find a viewer that runs unter Unix, resp. Linux, but unfortunately didn't find one. So it was my turn.
This package as a whole is published under the GNU Public License, which is a great invention.
It wasn't the intention to write a freaking viewer and reinvent the wheel again. Instead dbview is intend to be used in conjunction with yourfavourite unix text utilities like cut, recode and more.