Via file. How to open dbf file? Data search and filtering tools

The most common problem that users cannot open this file is an incorrectly assigned program. To fix this on Windows you need to click right click on file, in context menu hover the mouse over the "Open with" item, and select the "Select program ..." item from the drop-down menu. As a result, you will see a list installed programs on your computer and you can choose the right one. We also recommend checking the box next to "Use this application for all DBF files".

Another problem that our users also encounter quite often is that the DBF file is corrupted. This situation can arise in many cases. For example: the file was downloaded incompletely as a result of a server error, the file was damaged initially, etc. To fix this problem, use one of the recommendations:

• Try to find desired file in another source on the Internet. You may be lucky enough to find a more suitable version. Google search example: "File filetype: DBF". Just replace the word "file" with the name you want;
• Ask to send you the original file again, it may have been damaged in transit;

Dbf tables have been known since the distant 1980. Since then, the dBase format has evolved, developed, dBase II, dBase III and dBase IV appeared, by now many popular programs have been developed that work with databases, which use dbf format tables to this day. The dbf table format is quite old, but it continues to be used to create both large and ambitious, and for small projects, dbf tables are used for educational purposes, for acquaintance and study of basic knowledge and presentation of database organization. DBFNavigator is a free program for viewing and editing dbf format tables, a simple and convenient utility.

With DBFNavigator you can open and view dbf tables, edit tables - modify, add and delete records. Using DBFNavigator you can change the structure of tables, add, change and delete table fields, compress dbf tables to clear them of deleted records (garbage collection), change the encoding of Windows-> DOS tables and vice versa. In the program, you can sort table records, copy records and individual fields, print table rows, search for and apply filters to viewing table records, change the parameters for opening dbf files.

Screenshots of DBFNavigator

DBF Viewer 2000 ®- application for viewing and editing DBF of all types - Clipper, dBase, FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, Visual dBase.

The program performs various actions: queries, deleting duplicates or exporting to various formats - faster than you expect!

DBF editor dynamically creates visual forms based on structure DBF files for editing and queries. The program also allows you to view and edit memo fields in the following formats: dBase III, dBase IV, FoxPro, VFP and dBase Level 7.

The program fully supports the use of the command line for the following actions: import, export, delete duplicate records or replace data in DBF files. works independently of various DBMS - all you need to view and edit a DBF file is to install the application!

Why DBF Viewer 2000
unique?

Simple and intuitive interface

The interface of the application is quite simple and convenient, it allows you to save a lot of time during your daily work.

Convenient modification of the structure of DBF files in DBF Viewer 2000

You can add, delete, rename, change the order of fields and optimize the structure of DBF files.

Importing data from various formats using DBF Viewer 2000

DBF Viewer 2000 allows you to import data from the following formats: TXT, CSV, Excel (XLS, XLSX), DBF and Paradox. Data import can be done with preview or from the command line.

DBF Viewer 2000 offers advanced export options

The application allows you to export DBF files to Excel (XLS, XLSX), CSV, TXT, SQL, SDF, XML, HTML, PRG, and MS SQL, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL scripts.

DBF Viewer 2000 helps you remove duplicates

Removing duplicate entries is as easy as 1-2-3.

Works on all platforms

DBF Viewer 2000 runs on all Windows versions 95 to XP, Vista, 7/8/10 and Server Editions (32/64-bit)

DBF - file format designed to work with databases, reports and spreadsheets. Its structure consists of a title, which describes the content, and a body, which contains all the content in a tabular form. Distinctive feature this extension is interoperable with most database management systems.

Let's consider software that supports viewing this format.

Method 1: DBF Commander

DBF Commander is a multifunctional application for processing DBF files of various encodings; it allows you to perform basic manipulations with documents. It is distributed for a fee, but has a trial period.

To open:

Method 2: DBF Viewer Plus

DBF Viewer Plus - free tool for viewing and editing DBF, a simple and convenient interface is presented on English language... Has the function of creating your own tables, does not require installation.

To view:

Method 3: DBF Viewer 2000

DBF Viewer 2000 is a program with a rather simplified interface, it allows you to work with files larger than 2 GB. Has a Russian language and a trial period of use.

To open:

Method 4: CDBF

CDBF - powerful way editing and viewing databases, also allows you to create reports. You can expand the functionality using additional plugins. There is a Russian language, it is distributed for a fee, but it has a trial version.

To view:

Method 5: Microsoft Excel

Excel is one of the package components Microsoft programs Office, well known to most users.

To open:

Conclusion

We have covered the main ways to open DBF documents. Only DBF Viewer Plus stands out from the selection - it is completely free software, unlike the others, which are distributed on a paid basis and have only a trial period.

Free universal DBF editor that allows you to open existing and create new databases. It has a very small size, can be run from a flash drive and at the same time has many advanced tools for working with DBF files, among which there is even support for SQL queries!

Screenshot gallery

Usually on the site we cover programs that will be of interest to a wide range of readers, but today the case is not entirely ordinary :). I once worked as a kind of "computer specialist" in several government offices and there I often had to deal with various programs based on FoxPro ...

The main problem with all these applications was that a simple user could easily screw up the database so that it could not be opened later. regular means, so we had to be perverted in order to bring her back to life (which was not always possible, given the “abilities” of the “wild musicians” :)).

And now, a few years later, as I no longer work there, they sent us a request by mail to add a new one. free program for editing DBF databases, which has an uncomplicated name - Sdbf... Let's talk about her :)

Comparison with paid analogue

Sdbf, despite its portability (it can work from a flash drive!) And small size, is a fairly advanced database editor that allows you to create, edit and export any DBF format databases, from the xBaseIII specification to the modern xVisualFoxPro! Let's compare the functionality of Sdbf, with the capabilities of one of the most advanced editors of this kind, DBF Commander Professional:

From the above plate, we see that the programs differ slightly in functionality, but Sdbf, firstly, is portable (which is usually important, since every computer technician prefers to carry a set required programs on a USB flash drive), and secondly, it is completely free!

Starting Sdbf for the first time

To run the program, just unpack it from the downloaded archive to any location and open the resulting EXE file. An empty window of the following type will appear in front of us:

Drag & Drop, alas, is not supported, so to get started we need to call the "File" menu and there already select one of the two available actions: "New" new base or "Open" an existing one. Let's open the existing base:

Before us will open the contents of the selected database in the form of a table. The "zero" line displays the field names, and starting with the first line displays the content itself. Below the content is the toolbar and status bar at the bottom.

The latter displays a lot of useful service information, including the number of records in the database, encoding, creation date and automatically determined format. Of the Sdbf formats, it does not support only early versions of xBase (I and II) and allows you to open and create DBF files of the following types:

• xBase III - VII;
• xClipper;
• xFoxPro;
• xVisualFoxPro.

Data search and filtering tools

The Sdbf program allows you to directly edit any cell of an open database, however, the required cells still need to be found ... If the database is small and simple, then this can be done quite quickly and manually. However, if there are several dozen or even hundreds of records, then it can be quite difficult to search.

But this is not such a problem, since Sdbf has several tools at once that allow you to filter out unnecessary data and display only what you need!

These tools are found on the bottom toolbar. Here, at the beginning, there are 8 navigation buttons that allow you to move around the database (arrows), add / delete records, as well as confirm or cancel changes. The functions we need begin with the ninth button - "Search":

When the button is activated, a small window with a search form appears in front of us. We need to indicate the text that needs to be found and select from the drop-down list the field by which the search will be performed. Now press the "Find Next" button and the program will automatically select the line following the current selection, which contains the desired text. Pressing the button again will highlight the line below the current one, which contains the same required data, etc.

Sometimes databases contain non-standard cell formatting: extra spaces, tabs and other characters that are not visually displayed, but affect the search result. If you are faced with such a case, then for the normal operation of the function, you will only need to uncheck the "Based on format" checkbox in the lower central part of the search window and the search lines will begin to be displayed.

The search function is useful when we need to quickly find single occurrences of specific data. But there are times when it would be more convenient to display several lines at once that contain only certain information. In this case, the second function (the button of which goes right after the search button) will help us - "Filter":

To use filtering, we first need to correctly compose a request and enter it in a specially designated field (immediately after the button in the central part of the toolbar). The principle of composing a request is simple, but not entirely obvious. We need to first enter the name of the field by which we need to filter the database table, and then equate the filter value to the specific text by which we need to find all the rows.

We take the value in single quotes, after which we press the "Filter" button itself (it becomes clamped) and we get a table containing data only with the values ​​we have defined in the specified fields (in the example, we filtered all lines with the value "USA" in the "Country" field (the case of the name does not matter)). You can return the table to its original view simply by pressing the "Filter" button again (it becomes released again).

The filtering field can contain the simplest conditions "and" (to refine the query by several fields) and "or" (to alternatively select data from different fields). Unfortunately, Sdbf does not support exclusive queries (such as "not"), but we can work around this limitation in another way, which will be discussed below.

By the way, in order not to enter the filtering request manually, you can use the following trick: select any record in the field by which you will filter and press the Alt + F key combination (not F4 :))). The request will be automatically generated, and the value will contain the "*" sign, which is a search mask and matches any number of any characters.

Alas, this is the only type of masks that can be used in Sdbf and, what's even sadder, one query can contain only one mask :(. Therefore, if you need to filter the same field by several parameters, you will have to use the "and" operator (quick formation of a query by pressing "CTRL + ALT + F") or "or" ("SHIFT + ALT + F").

Executing SQL queries against database tables

Searching and filtering is undoubtedly good, but not always convenient. When the number of records is large, we can easily lose sight of the data we need when parsing tables. However, for this case, Sdbf has a great feature - support for SQL queries!

With these queries in Sdbf, we can:

1. Dynamically format our table, creating a selection only for certain required fields (SELECT and SELECT TOP statements);
2. Copy data from one database to another (INSERT FROM and INSERT INTO);
3. Modify and delete the contents of certain lines (UPDATE and DELETE, respectively);
4. Group parallel queries (UNION);
5. Form pivot tables (PIVOT).

To start working with queries, we need to click the "SQL Query" button at the right end of the toolbar. However, the result of such an action will be somewhat discouraging: the contents of the newly edited database will disappear, and another empty window with two fields will appear on top of the working window (at the top - the data output field, and below - the input field).

Do not be afraid :). You just need to immediately enter the required SQL query in the bottom field with the name of the required database. If you do not remember this name, you can activate the Sdbf sidebar (by clicking on the gray vertical bar on the right), which displays all the databases that you opened earlier in the form of a list:

Also, to speed up the work, it is advisable to remember the hotkeys, which can be viewed by calling the help by pressing the F1 key. There are only three of them, but they can significantly speed up the process of creating the right queries.

So, the combination "CTRL + Space" - will display a pop-up window with a list of available database names (so as not to look at the sidebar), "CTRL + F" - will display a list of functions for the current operator, and "CTRL + Enter" will start the query execution process ... In addition, if you right-click on the input field (call the context menu), we will get a list of operators supported by Sdbf.

Let's go back to our previous screenshot and take a look at simplest request which is compiled there. It is based on the "SELECT" statement, which means it returns a selection to us. The selection parameter is "*", which means the output of any data, however, we could specify there, separated by commas, the names of any fields of the database table.

The fetch we looked at above is the simplest, but Sdbf allows for more complex queries. In the next screenshot, we will see a selection, a dynamically generated table consisting of fields that contain the names of customers, the city in which they live and the country. Moreover, customers are filtered by country of residence (U.S.A) and the results are displayed in alphabetical order:

If you disassemble this request, then we will see the already mentioned method of selection by the fields specified with a comma after SELECT statement... Further, the same indication of the name of the database, but now the request does not end there.

The next step is to enumerate the functions of the main operator that will need to be executed as a result of processing the request. There are two of them here.

The first - "where" is similar to the filter we discussed earlier, and performs a similar action - it allows you to select only those records that match the condition.

The second function, "order by", is responsible for sorting the results obtained by one of the fields (in this case, by the field with the customer's name - "NAME") in alphabetical ("asc" parameter) or inverted ("desc") order.

Naturally, the given example is also quite primitive, but it reflects the general essence of creating and processing SQL queries. If you want to learn more about them, I advise you to read the manuals here: http://dimonchik.com/insert.html or https://www.sql.ru/articles/articles.aspx?g=SQL&s=0.

By the way, the advantage of Sdbf is the ability to export the table obtained as a result of the query as a new database or as HTML, RTF, or CSV file! To do this, just call the context menu of the table display field and select the appropriate item.

Additional functions from the menu bar

We figured out the main features of Sdbf, but it doesn't end there. A number of useful and even unique functions are hidden in the menu bar, the same one that we used to open the database :) So, many useful features (which sometimes allow you to do without SQL queries) can be found in the "Table" menu:

Among other "useful things" such as changing the encoding and merging databases at the very bottom, we can find the item "Change structure". This item calls an additional window in which we can completely change all fields of an open table, add new ones, or delete unnecessary sections (the same window opens when creating a database from scratch).

Specifically, we can change the order of fields, their names, types, sizes (the number of characters in a cell) and precision (bit depth is usually set automatically and depends on the type of the field).

The only thing to remember when editing (and especially creating) databases is that each type of database has its own sets of field types, and they often (if you do not take into account the basic N, C, D) are different. For example, xClipper does not support image fields (P, B), and xBase up to the seventh version does not support auto-incrementing fields (+). That is, you should always remember about compatibility :).

While we're on the menu bar, don't forget to look at the Field menu:

There are only two functions here, but they can be very useful! Especially the first one is "Replace". It allows you to quickly automatic mode replace values ​​in the entire column of the specified field, or specific words and symbols throughout the database!

The function "Calculate" is an analogue of Excel's auto-calculation formulas and allows us to perform such mathematical and statistical operations as finding the auto-sum of a field, calculating the arithmetic mean, as well as the maximum and minimum values. Naturally, to perform calculations, the field types must be numeric (N, F, I, O, B).

The last feature, which is not so obvious, but can be useful, is the built-in HEX editor:

It allows you to edit the data of any cell. To do this, just select the content that needs to be changed and select the last item in the context menu - "Open in hex". That's it - you can edit and save or print the result right away!

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

• portability and small size;
• support for almost all types of DBF files;
• the ability to create databases from scratch;
• support for SQL queries;
• built-in system for searching, filtering and editing data.

• does not allow specifying more than one mask in a filter;
• there is no undo function.

conclusions

The Sdbf program, at its modest size and system requirements allows you to do with DBF databases, if not all, then very, very much ... And the implementation of support for SQL queries in general allows you to take the work of editing the database to a new level! With their help, you can easily compensate for many shortcomings in the work through the graphical interface.

The biggest disappointment, in my opinion, was the absence of the most trivial function "Undo the last action" in the world of "CTRL + Z": the data will no longer be possible :(

For this, we can state that the program is functionally more than successful, but before working with it, always follow the ancient admin rule - CREATE BACKUPS! And you will be happy :)

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and cite this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.