Video: Export data from DBF table to CSV file without coding

This video shows how to export data from DBF table to CSV file without coding with Withdata DBToFile, or with the free Export DBF to CSV online tool. It covers the dbf table side and the CSV side.

Export DBF to CSV: what this does

This shows how to export a DBF (dBase) table to CSV so it can be opened in Excel or loaded into a modern database. The video above is the full flow; the notes cover the DBF specifics.

Steps

Open Withdata DBToFile and point it at the .dbf file (and its folder, so the memo file is found).
Choose CSV as the output format.
Confirm the character encoding of the source table.
Select the fields to export, then run the export.

DBF to CSV: details worth knowing

The memo file must be present. Long text lives in a companion .dbt file; without it those columns come out empty.
Encoding has no marker. A DBF header does not record its code page, so choose the right encoding or accented text is mangled.
Field names are short. DBF field names are capped at 10 characters, so CSV headers may look truncated.
Dates. DBF dates are stored as YYYYMMDD; they are written as a normal date string in the CSV.
Numeric fields. Numbers keep the width and decimals defined in the .dbf; a value that did not fit was already truncated in the table.
Deleted records. Rows flagged as deleted in the .dbf are skipped, so the CSV row count can be lower than the raw file suggests.

FAQ

Some text columns are empty — why?: The companion .dbt memo file was missing; keep it next to the .dbf.
Accents are wrong — why?: The DBF code page did not match the selected encoding.
Are deleted rows exported?: No — rows flagged as deleted are excluded.

See the tool page Export DBF to CSV, or the app overview Withdata DBToFile.

Download Withdata DBToFile