dbf
What is a .dbf file?
application/dbf
A dBASE table (.dbf) is a legacy binary tabular format with a fixed-width header describing columns (name, type, length) followed by fixed-length records. It persists today as the attribute table of GIS shapefiles and in legacy database exchange.
How to use a .dbf file
Use an example .dbf file to test dBASE/xBase readers, shapefile attribute parsing, and DBF-to-CSV conversion.
Download example .dbf files
- DBF: dBase / xBase TableThe employee table as a dBase (DBF) file: the venerable xBase table format still emitted by GIS tools and legacy databases. For testing DBF readers and DBF→CSV conversion.
- Shapefile: Towns Attributes (.dbf, dBase III)The attribute table as a dBase III file: fixed-width, space-padded, ASCII numerics. Field names are capped at ten characters and there is no type for dates-with-time or for nested values, which is why shapefile export loses so much of a modern schema.
- Shapefile: Roads Attributes (.dbf with a decimal field)The road attribute table, including a numeric field declared with two decimal places. DBF stores numbers as right-justified ASCII, so the declared width and decimal count are the only thing that says 9.40 is not 940.
- Shapefile: Parcels Attributes (.dbf)The parcel attribute table, joined to the .shp purely by record order: there is no key and no explicit link. Deleting a geometry without deleting its row shifts every subsequent attribute onto the wrong shape, silently.
- Shapefile DBF: Accented Attributes in UTF-8The same four accented attribute rows written in UTF-8. Both files are exactly the same size because DBF fields are fixed-width in bytes, not characters, so the UTF-8 table fits fewer characters per field, and a reader that guesses the encoding produces mojibake rather than an obvious failure.
- Shapefile DBF: Accented Attributes in CP1252The same four accented attribute rows written in CP1252. Both files are exactly the same size because DBF fields are fixed-width in bytes, not characters, so the UTF-8 table fits fewer characters per field, and a reader that guesses the encoding produces mojibake rather than an obvious failure.
- Convert v2 Shapefile DBF CompanionReal DBF component from the five-town Kestrel Bay shapefile set, copied byte-for-byte into the Convert v2 reserve. Stable P8 artifact p8-convert-shapefile-dbf.