convert Dbase (.dbf) files to SQLite databases

[John Machin]

On Jul 15, 8:39 pm, David Lyon <david.l... at preisshare.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:53:28 +0200, Helmut Jarausch
>
> <jarau... at igpm.rwth-aachen.de> wrote:
> > Hi,
>
> > I have a lot of old Dbase files (.dbf) and I'll like to convert these
> > to SQLite databases as automatically as possible.
> > Does anybody know a tool/Python script to do so?
>
> > I know, I could use dbfpy and create the SQLite table and import all
> > data. But is there something easier?
>
> yes...
>
> Use OpenOffice-Scalc or MS-Office-Excel to open the table...

Max 64K rows for Scalc and Excel 2003; 2007 can take 2**20 rows.
Only old dBase (not dBase 7). Memo fields not handled. Visual FoxPro
DBFs not supported by Excel even tho' VFP is an MS product.


> Export to csv....

Yuk.

>
> Use SQLite Manager (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5817)
>
> and use the import wizard to import your data....
>
> It shouldn't take too long...

... before you get sick of the error-prone manual tasks.

I'd write a script that took a DBF file, analysed the field
descriptions, made a CREATE TABLE statement, executed it, and then
started doing inserts. Fairly easy to write. Scripts have the great
benefit that you can fix them and re-run a whole lot easier than
redoing manual steps.

If dbfpy can't handle any new-fangled stuff you may have in your
files, drop me a line ... I have a soon-to-be released DBF module that
should be able to read the "new" stuff up to dBase7 and VFP9,
including memo files, conversion from whatever to Unicode if
needed, ...

Cheers,
John