Extract text from dBase tables (DBF)
To convert DBF tables to another format, you need dBase or other Database software.
To convert other file formats to the "dBase / Shapefile Table" file type, you need software like dBase or a similar tool.
Originating in the 1980s with Ashton-Tate's dBASE, the .DBF format is a standard file format for database tables. Today, it is most commonly encountered as the attribute data table within an ESRI Shapefile dataset. It stores the tabular data corresponding to geographic features.
Historically, these files were opened with dBASE, Microsoft Visual FoxPro, or other xBase variants. In modern geographic information systems (GIS), you interact with them using QGIS or ArcGIS. Occasionally, they are also used as tablespace data files in Oracle Database systems.
The format is ancient and heavily restricted. It is a binary format that cannot be easily read without specialized software. It strictly limits field names to exactly 10 characters, which forces users to create confusing, truncated abbreviations. The .DBF format also struggles with modern Unicode text encoding, often leading to corrupted characters if the code page is not explicitly defined. You need legacy database drivers (like the Microsoft Access Database Engine) just to interact with it programmatically.
Converting .DBF files is highly recommended to escape these legacy limitations. For general data analysis and web use, convert to CSV or JSON. For office reporting, convert to XLSX (Excel spreadsheet). If the file is part of a Shapefile, consider converting the entire dataset to GeoJSON or GPKG (GeoPackage) to bypass the 10-character column limit.
Convert.Guru analyzes your DBF file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted CPG, SHP, SHX, PRJ, SBN, CDX, SBX, DBT, DFB, ZIP, CST, DB and BDF files.
If you want to convert DBF file to CSV, PDF, XLSX, SQL, SHP, DB, SQLITE, SQLITE3, MDB, ACCDB, ODB or FDB, you can use dBase or similar software from the "Legacy Database Table Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert NDF, SQLITE3, BAK, RDB, SQL, DB4, MDF, MDB, LDF, DB, DB3 or SQLITE files to DBF, try dBase or another comparable tool in the "Legacy Database Table Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our DBF converter.