Hi, is it possible to view and edit db3 files in linux?
OpenOffice does not do it and dbview says it can’t read version 83.
Just wondering. I am not really firm with databases, but i remember that i did view databases in linux. I just can’t remember anymore.
Thanks;)
dBASE is certainly listed as an option for saving and as a potential source if you want to set up an address book in OpenOffice; so, unless dBASE file formats have changed, you should be able to view them. With editing a dBASE file in a spreadsheet, you need to know what you are doing because, if my memory serves me correctly, they don’t handle memo fields.
If there has been a file format change, can you export the dBASE files as CSV; there will not be any problem then.
john hudson wrote:
>
> dBASE is certainly listed as an option for saving and as a potential
> source if you want to set up an address book in OpenOffice; so, unless
> dBASE file formats have changed, you should be able to view them. With
> editing a dBASE file in a spreadsheet, you need to know what you are
> doing because, if my memory serves me correctly, they don’t handle memo
> fields.
>
> If there has been a file format change, can you export the dBASE files
> as CSV; there will not be any problem then.
Confirm the dBASE read/edit. I think the version of FoxPro I uses the dBASE
IV format - the FoxPro tables are built by VPF 6 - and memo fields are not
supported by oo.
One gotcha is the handling of NULL fields - if you import the dBASE file,
NULL numeric fields are copied to numeric formatted cells as 0, rather than
NULL. From what little editing I’ve done directly, it appears to then store
the value as 0 instead of NULL when saving - screws me up every so often
since dbm considers 0 and NULL as different entities. Simplest solution for
me is to replace the 0 fields with banks (NULL) before saving the file but
that can be problematic for some cases.
The other gotcha I run in to is logic fields. oo imports them as
‘TRUE’/‘FALSE’ (literally). Saving corrupts the database so I have a script
to change the fields from ‘TRUE’/‘FALSE’ to ‘T’/‘F’ which works for me.
–
Will Honea
On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:36:01 GMT, yester64
<yester64@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
>Hi, is it possible to view and edit db3 files in linux?
>OpenOffice does not do it and dbview says it can’t read version 83.
>Just wondering. I am not really firm with databases, but i remember
>that i did view databases in linux. I just can’t remember anymore.
>
>Thanks;)
If you are talking about dBase3 data files i have a small suite of “C”
functions and some wrappers in “C” to directly manipulate the files. I
developed them from a book of old file formats nearly 20 years ago. I
don’t think i could update index files correctly, not a needed
capacity for my use at the time. OO should be able to access the
table files just fine though.