1dbf version 0.7 2dBASE reader and converter for dBASE databases 3Author: Bjoern Berg 4Email: clergyman@gmx.de 5 6dbf is an easy-to-use command line tool to show and convert the content 7of dBASE III, IV, and 5.0 files. It reads dBASE databases and prints the 8content to the screen or converts it to comma-separated (*.csv) files 9which can be opened in Excel, StarOffice, and most other spread sheets. 10It can also be used to show some statistics about the content. 11 12This programme bases on the source of Joachim Astel published 1316/01/1995 in de.comp.databases and was improved and extended at some 14points. At the moment binaries could be received during 15http://www.anubisnet.de for Windows and Linux. 16 17 18Features: 19========= 20 21- CSV Converter 22dBASE III could be easily converted to CSV-files which could be opened with the 23most popular spread sheets. 24 25- SQL Exporteur 26dbf supports since version 0.6 an experimental export to SQL instruction setting files, 27so called SQL statements. 28 29- Code Pages 30dBASE III files were now automatically encoded with the optimal chars and umlauts 31for american, english and western european data sets. 32 33- Endianess-save 34Since version 0.5, dbf is usable on nearly every architecture, if it is Big Endian 35or Little Endian. 36 37 38Support: 39======== 40 41For these platforms and database formats we can guarantee that dbf works 42 43Platform: 44--------- 45Linux i386 AXP PPC 46Windows i386 47MacOS X PPC 48Darwin 49*BSD i386 50AIX 4.3.3 51 52 53Database: 54--------- 55dBASE III 56dBASE IV 57dBASE 5.0 58 59ATTENTION: Since version 0.7 we cannot guarantee, that dbf supports the above 60mentioned platforms and operating systems any longer because of some major and 61important changes in the code. 62 63 64Compiling and Installation: 65=========================== 66 67See INSTALL and http://anubisnet.sf.net/support.php for more details. 68 69 70Usage: 71====== 72 73These commands are for all versions: 74------------------------------------ 75 76- in general 77 78dbf --csv <csv-filename> <dbf-file> 79dbf --sql <sql-filename> <dbf-file> 80dbf --view-info <dbf-file> 81dbf --help or -h for help 82 83You could start the programme as follows: 84 85dbf C:\My Files\mydbf.dbf 86dbf /home/<user>/mydbf.dbf 87 88and displays the whole data on console. 89 90- converting into comma separated files (CSV) Datei 91 92dbf --csv mycsv.csv C:\Eigene Dateien\mydb.dbf 93dbf --csv mycsv.csv /home/<user>/mydb.dbf 94 95- converting into SQL statements 96 97Please note that the sql-filename also reflects the name for the table that is 98created. 99 100dbf --sql mysql.sql C:\Eigene Dateien\mydb.dbf 101dbf --sql mysql.sql /home/<user>/mydb.dbf 102 103Since dbf 0.7 dbf supports also the following handlers: 104------------------------------------------------------- 105 106--trim {r|l|b} 107Trims whitespaces in dBASE-files if necessary (r)ight, (l)eft or on (b)oth sides 108of a data set. 109 110--separator {c} 111With the flag separator you are now able to define your own separator between your 112CSV data sets. The default is ",". 113 114--noconv 115Disables the experimental code page conversion. 116 117--debug {0-9} 118Defines the different debug levels. 119 120 121Comments on some functions: 122--------------------------- 123 124- show file statistic 125Since version 0.3.0 the statitical output and information about the fields are no 126longer displayed automatically, but can be shown with the flag "--view-info". 127 128- using Code Pages 129Since version 0.2.5 dbf has the ability to encode umlauts and chars of western 130european languages. With version 0.3.0 dbf can do this automatically, so that the 131flag -cs is outdated and no longer in use. 132 133- Override System Check 134With the flag --ppc you can disable the architecture check, so that you can give dbf 135a try on your Big Endian system. Maybe it works (only active in beta and development versions) 136 137 138Frequently Asked Questions / Help: 139================================== 140 141See the attached file FAQ or have a look at 142http://anubisnet.sf.net/support.php for more help. 143 144Subscribe to our mailinglist for every question: 145http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dbf-general 146 147 148Contributors: 149============= 150 151see CREDITS for more details 152If you want to contribute to dbf or any other project of anubisnet, have a look at 153our website: http://anubisnet.sourceforge.net/volunteer/index.php. 154See also FAQ for more information on dbf, and how to help on this project. 155 156 157Copyright: 158========== 159 160(c) 2002 - 2003, Bjoern Berg 161 162Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute and sell this software 163and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, 164provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and 165that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear 166in supporting documentation. The author makes no representations 167about the suitability of this software for any purpose. 168It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. 169 170 171Comments, suggestions and bugs to: clergyman@gmx.de 172 173 174 175 176