How to read .dbf file correctly?

[leandrofeder]

Hello,

I have a file with a .dbf extension and I need to read the contents of it, but it comes with unreadable characters

I don't have access to generate this file, I only receive the file and need to read and manipulate the file's data

How can I properly read this file?

[LVNinja]

I read this data using Read Spreadsheet array , does it make sense ?

 

[Andrey_Dmitriev]

This is binary file, the dbf extension usually reserved for dBase:

You should found spec for this format, read it as byte array and parse.

For example if this is dBase, then the first Byte is version, the next 3 bytes — date of last update; formatted as YYMMDD (with YY being the number of years since 1900), in your case 7B 09 0E which is decimal 123; 9; 14 - means 14 September 2023 (1900+123), the next four bytes is amount of records (it seems to be that you have attached the only small portion, or something wrong with your header/data).

Keyword in the header is DBWINUS0 - search internet you will found some viewers and specs like https://www.dbase.com/Knowledgebase/INT/db7_file_fmt.htm

[leandrofeder]

Yes, i'm doing like that
But i would to read the characteres correctly too

[Andrey_Dmitriev · Accepted solution]

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@leandrofeder wrote:

Yes, i'm doing like that
But i would to read the characteres correctly too

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You can't read data correctly as long as you don't know how they encoded. Some text is readable:

But the bytes sequences like DA E2 BD D5 28 E6 etc cannot be visualized as "characters" without decoding, may be here some number stored as floats/doubles, may be something else. Again, it is binary and not text format.

[Yamaeda]

I have no idea if it's any good (or even secure), but i found: DBF Viewer | dbfviewer.com

[wiebe@CARYA]

Install a dBase database driver (dBase ODBC Driver?) and a SQL library (LabSQL, or Database Connectivity Toolkit Download).

Use either ODBC or figure out a connection string to the file.

Next, learn some SQL and query the database the way it was designed to be done.

Alternatively, convert the dBase file to a modern database (like MySQL: Convert DBase to MySQL online - RebaseData).