DBF

DBF is a small, fast Ruby library for reading dBase, xBase, Clipper, and FoxPro database files.

• Project page: https://github.com/infused/dbf
• API Documentation: https://rubydoc.info/github/infused/dbf
• Report bugs: https://github.com/infused/dbf/issues
• Questions: Email mailto:keithm@infused.org and put DBF somewhere in the subject line
• Change log: https://github.com/infused/dbf/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

NOTE: Beginning with version 4.3 we have dropped support for Ruby 3.0 and earlier.

NOTE: Beginning with version 4 we have dropped support for Ruby 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. If you need support for these older Rubies, please use 3.0.x (https://github.com/infused.org/dbf/tree/3_stable)

NOTE: Beginning with version 3 we have dropped support for Ruby 1.8 and 1.9. If you need support for older Rubies, please use 2.0.x (https://github.com/infused/dbf/tree/2_stable)

DBF is tested to work with the following versions of Ruby:

• Ruby 3.1.x, 3.2.x, 3.3.x

Install the gem manually:

gem install dbf

Or add to your Gemfile:

gem 'dbf'

Open a DBF file using a path:

require 'dbf'
widgets = DBF::Table.new("widgets.dbf")

Open a DBF file using an IO object:

data = File.open('widgets.dbf')
widgets = DBF::Table.new(data)

Open a DBF by passing in raw data (wrap the raw data with StringIO):

widgets = DBF::Table.new(StringIO.new('raw binary data'))

Enumerate all records

widgets.each do |record|
  puts record.name
  puts record.email
end

Find a single record

widget = widgets.find(6)

Note that find() will return nil if the requested record has been deleted and not yet pruned from the database.

The value for an attribute can be accessed via element reference in several ways.

widget.slot_number     # underscored field name as method

widget["SlotNumber"]   # original field name in dbf file
widget['slot_number']  # underscored field name string
widget[:slot_number]   # underscored field name symbol

Get a hash of all attributes. The keys are the original column names.

widget.attributes
# => {"Name" => "Thing1 | SlotNumber" => 1}

Search for records using a simple hash format. Multiple search criteria are ANDed. Use the block form if the resulting record set is too big. Otherwise, all records are loaded into memory.

# find all records with slot_number equal to s42
widgets.find(:all, slot_number: 's42') do |widget|
  # the record will be nil if deleted, but not yet pruned from the database
  if widget
    puts widget.serial_number
  end
end

# find the first record with slot_number equal to s42
widgets.find :first, slot_number: 's42'

# find record number 10
widgets.find(10)

DBF::Table is a Ruby Enumerable, so you get several traversal, search, and sort methods for free. For example, let's get only records created before January 1st, 2015:

widgets.select { |w| w.created_date < Date.new(2015, 1, 1) }

Or custom sorting:

widgets.sort_by { |w| w.created_date }

dBase supports encoding non-english characters with different character sets. Unfortunately, the character set used may not be set explicitly. In that case, you will have to specify it manually. For example, if you know the dbf file is encoded with 'Russian OEM':

table = DBF::Table.new('dbf/books.dbf', nil, 'cp866')

An example of migrating a DBF book table to ActiveRecord using a migration:

require 'dbf'

class Book < ActiveRecord::Base; end

class CreateBooks < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    table = DBF::Table.new('db/dbf/books.dbf')
    eval(table.schema)

    Book.reset_column_information
    table.each do |record|
      Book.create(title: record.title, author: record.author)
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :books
  end
end

If you have initialized the DBF::Table with raw data, you will need to set the exported table name manually:

table.name = 'my_table_name'

An example of migrating a DBF book table to Sequel using a migration:

require 'dbf'

class Book < Sequel::Model; end

Sequel.migration do
  up do
    table = DBF::Table.new('db/dbf/books.dbf')
    eval(table.schema(:sequel, true)) # passing true to limit output to create_table() only

    Book.reset_column_information
    table.each do |record|
      Book.create(title: record.title, author: record.author)
    end
  end

  down do
    drop_table(:books)
  end
end

If you have initialized the DBF::Table with raw data, you will need to set the exported table name manually:

table.name = 'my_table_name'

A small command-line utility called dbf is installed with the gem.

$ dbf -h
usage: dbf [-h|-s|-a] filename
  -h = print this message
  -v = print the version number
  -s = print summary information
  -a = create an ActiveRecord::Schema
  -r = create a Sequel Migration
  -c = export as CSV

Create an executable ActiveRecord schema:

dbf -a books.dbf > books_schema.rb

Create an executable Sequel schema:

dbf -r books.dbf > migrate/001_create_books.rb

Dump all records to a CSV file:

dbf -c books.dbf > books.csv

A special Database::Foxpro class is available to read Visual Foxpro container files (file with .dbc extension). When using this class, long field names are supported, and tables can be referenced without using names.

require 'dbf'

contacts = DBF::Database::Foxpro.new('contact_database.dbc').contacts
my_contact = contacts.record(1).spouses_interests

The basic dBase data types are generally supported well. Support for the advanced data types in dBase V and FoxPro are still experimental or not supported. If you have insight into how any of the unsupported data types are implemented, please open an issue on Github. FoxBase/dBase II files are not supported at this time.

Data type descriptions

• C = Character
• N = Number
• L = Logical
• D = Date
• M = Memo
• F = Float
• B = Binary
• G = General
• P = Picture
• Y = Currency
• T = DateTime
• I = Integer
• V = VariField
• X = SQL compat
• @ = Timestamp
• O = Double
• • = Autoincrement

• DBF is read-only
• Index files are not utilized

Copyright (c) 2006-2024 Keith Morrison <keithm@infused.org>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.