I have a huge collection of visual foxpro dbf files that I would like to convert to csv. (If you like, you can download some of the data here. Click on the 2011 link for Transaction Data, and prepare to wait a long time. ) I can open each table with DBF View Plus (an awesome freeware utility), but exporting them to csv takes a few hours per file, and I have several dozen files to work with. Is there a program like DBF View plus that will allow me to set up a batch of dbf-to-csv conversions to run overnight? /Edit: Alternatively, is there a good way to import .dbf files straight into SQL Server 2008? They should all go into 1 table, as each file is just a subset of records from the same table and should have all the same column names.
asked Jan 12, 2012 at 22:10 30.1k 38 38 gold badges 145 145 silver badges 203 203 bronze badges How about something like: whitetown.com/dbf2csv Commented Jan 12, 2012 at 22:33 Do you HAVE Visual Foxpro available? If so, I could post a simple program code you could run. Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 16:36@DRapp Unfortunately no. I also know very little about VFP. Is it available for free (like SQL Express is)?
Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 16:37What programming access tools DO you have. Visual Studio? C#. And do you know how many records are in each file. roughly?
Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 16:40One other know of caution.. We too have used a DBF View utility, don't know if its the same one or not. However, if you DO use it on a dbf that has an auto-increment column for ID purposes in whatever system, it can kill that setting and your app could have other problems after that since all new IDs would be created as zero.
Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 16:58Load up your list of FoxPro files in an array/list then call the ConvertDbf on each to convert them from FoxPro to csv files. See the c# console application code below.
Credit c# datatable to csv for the DataTableToCSV function.
using System; using System.Data; using System.Data.OleDb; using System.IO; using System.Linq; using System.Text; namespace SO8843066 < class Program < static void Main(string[] args) < string connectionString = @"Provider=VFPOLEDB.1;Data Source=C:\"; string dbfToConvert = @"C:\yourdbffile.dbf"; ConvertDbf(connectionString, dbfToConvert, dbfToConvert.Replace(".dbf", ".csv")); Console.WriteLine("End of program execution"); Console.WriteLine("Press any key to end"); Console.ReadKey(); >static void DataTableToCSV(DataTable dt, string csvFile) < StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); var columnNames = dt.Columns.Cast().Select(column => column.ColumnName).ToArray(); sb.AppendLine(string.Join(",", columnNames)); foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows) < var fields = row.ItemArray.Select(field =>field.ToString()).ToArray(); for (int i =0;i < fields.Length;i++) < sb.Append("\"" + fields[i].Trim() ); sb.Append((i != fields.Length - 1) ? "\"," : "\""); >sb.Append("\r\n"); > File.WriteAllText(csvFile, sb.ToString()); > static void ConvertDbf(string connectionString, string dbfFile, string csvFile) < string sqlSelect = string.Format("SELECT * FROM ", dbfFile); using (OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(connectionString)) < using (OleDbDataAdapter da = new OleDbDataAdapter(sqlSelect, connection)) < DataSet ds = new DataSet(); da.Fill(ds); DataTableToCSV(ds.Tables[0], csvFile); >> > > >