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

• Project page: http://github.com/infused/dbf
• API Documentation: http://rubydoc.info/github/infused/dbf/frames
• Report bugs: http://github.com/infused/dbf/issues
• Questions: Email mailto:[email protected] and put DBF somewhere in the subject line

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

• MRI Ruby 1.8.6, 1.8.7, 1.9.1, 1.9.2 and 1.9.3
• JRuby 1.6.2, 1.6.3, 1.6.4, and 1.6.5
• REE 1.8.6, 1.8.7

gem install dbf

Open a DBF file:

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

Enumerate all records

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

Find a single record

widget.find(6)

Attributes can also be accessed through the attributes hash in original or underscored form or as an accessor method using the underscored name. (Note that find() will return nil if the requested record has been deleted and not yet pruned from the database)

widget.find(4).attributes["SlotNumber"]
widget.find(4).attributes["slot_number"]
widget.find(4).slot_number

Search for records using a simple hash format. Multiple search criteria are ANDed. Use the block form if the resulting recordset could be large, otherwise all records will be 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)

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(record.attributes)
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :books
  end
end

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

$ dbf -h
usage: dbf [-h|-s|-a] filename
  -h = print this message
  -s = print summary information
  -a = create an ActiveRecord::Schema
  -c = create a csv file

Create an executable ActiveRecord schema:

dbf -a books.dbf > books_schema.rb

Dump all records to a CSV file:

dbf -c books.dbf > books.csv

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 give me a shout. FoxBase/dBase II files are not supported at this time.

See doc/supported_types.markdown for a full list of supported column types.

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

Copyright (c) 2006-2012 Keith Morrison [email protected]

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.