AgnesKirchhoff: 1 revision

2014-11-10T16:59:37Z

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DavidFichtmueller: initial version

2012-11-09T17:04:24Z

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This article describes how to export data out of a dBase Table File (*.dbf). For details about the file format see [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/x-fmt/9] and [http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000325.shtml].

=== Opening the data with Libre Office ===
It is possible to import *.dbf files into Libre Office (or Open Office) Calc or Base: http://help.libreoffice.org/Calc/Importing_and_Exporting_dBASE_Files . Libre Office will try to recognize the character encoding of the data and preselect this option in the import window. Once a file imported, it can be saved in/exported to a variety of different formats.

=== Importing the data directly into a mySQL database ===
Alternatively the data can directly be imported into a running mySQL database using the linux program <code>[http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/lucid/man1/dbf2mysql.1.html dbf2mysql]</code>. Importing the data directly however could cause some problems with the character encoding for non ASCII characters.

If the mysql server is already running, the following commands will import the data:
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
user@linux:~$ mysql -u root -p
mysql> create database database_name;
mysql> exit
user@linux:~$ sudo apt-get install dbf2mysql
user@linux:~$ dbf2mysql -vvv -c -f -d database_name -U root -P password DATA_FILE.DBF
</syntaxhighlight>
The data can then be exported using <code>mysqldump</code>
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
user@linux:~$ mysqldump -u root -p database_name > data_export.sql
</syntaxhighlight>

Export dBase Data - Revision history

AgnesKirchhoff: 1 revision

DavidFichtmueller: initial version