dbf version 0.7 dBASE reader and converter for dBASE databases Author: Bjoern Berg Email: clergyman@gmx.de dbf is an easy-to-use command line tool to show and convert the content of dBASE III, IV, and 5.0 files. It reads dBASE databases and prints the content to the screen or converts it to comma-separated (*.csv) files which can be opened in Excel, StarOffice, and most other spread sheets. It can also be used to show some statistics about the content. This programme bases on the source of Joachim Astel published 16/01/1995 in de.comp.databases and was improved and extended at some points. At the moment binaries could be received during http://www.anubisnet.de for Windows and Linux. Features: ========= - CSV Converter dBASE III could be easily converted to CSV-files which could be opened with the most popular spread sheets. - SQL Exporteur dbf supports since version 0.6 an experimental export to SQL instruction setting files, so called SQL statements. - Code Pages dBASE III files were now automatically encoded with the optimal chars and umlauts for american, english and western european data sets. - Endianess-save Since version 0.5, dbf is usable on nearly every architecture, if it is Big Endian or Little Endian. Support: ======== For these platforms and database formats we can guarantee that dbf works Platform: --------- Linux i386 AXP PPC Windows i386 MacOS X PPC Darwin *BSD i386 AIX 4.3.3 Database: --------- dBASE III dBASE IV dBASE 5.0 ATTENTION: Since version 0.7 we cannot guarantee, that dbf supports the above mentioned platforms and operating systems any longer because of some major and important changes in the code. Compiling and Installation: =========================== See INSTALL and http://anubisnet.sf.net/support.php for more details. Usage: ====== These commands are for all versions: ------------------------------------ - in general dbf --csv <csv-filename> <dbf-file> dbf --sql <sql-filename> <dbf-file> dbf --view-info <dbf-file> dbf --help or -h for help You could start the programme as follows: dbf C:\My Files\mydbf.dbf dbf /home/<user>/mydbf.dbf and displays the whole data on console. - converting into comma separated files (CSV) Datei dbf --csv mycsv.csv C:\Eigene Dateien\mydb.dbf dbf --csv mycsv.csv /home/<user>/mydb.dbf - converting into SQL statements Please note that the sql-filename also reflects the name for the table that is created. dbf --sql mysql.sql C:\Eigene Dateien\mydb.dbf dbf --sql mysql.sql /home/<user>/mydb.dbf Since dbf 0.7 dbf supports also the following handlers: ------------------------------------------------------- --trim {r|l|b} Trims whitespaces in dBASE-files if necessary (r)ight, (l)eft or on (b)oth sides of a data set. --separator {c} With the flag separator you are now able to define your own separator between your CSV data sets. The default is ",". --noconv Disables the experimental code page conversion. --debug {0-9} Defines the different debug levels. Comments on some functions: --------------------------- - show file statistic Since version 0.3.0 the statitical output and information about the fields are no longer displayed automatically, but can be shown with the flag "--view-info". - using Code Pages Since version 0.2.5 dbf has the ability to encode umlauts and chars of western european languages. With version 0.3.0 dbf can do this automatically, so that the flag -cs is outdated and no longer in use. - Override System Check With the flag --ppc you can disable the architecture check, so that you can give dbf a try on your Big Endian system. Maybe it works (only active in beta and development versions) Frequently Asked Questions / Help: ================================== See the attached file FAQ or have a look at http://anubisnet.sf.net/support.php for more help. Subscribe to our mailinglist for every question: http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dbf-general Contributors: ============= see CREDITS for more details If you want to contribute to dbf or any other project of anubisnet, have a look at our website: http://anubisnet.sourceforge.net/volunteer/index.php. See also FAQ for more information on dbf, and how to help on this project. Copyright: ========== (c) 2002 - 2003, Bjoern Berg Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. The author makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. Comments, suggestions and bugs to: clergyman@gmx.de