The dBase Format (DBF) Reader/Writer allows FME to read and write data in the DBF format.
All DBF files are formatted according to the dBase III specification. The DBF Reader/Writer reuses the Relational Table Reader/Writer’s CSV to expand its capabilities from being usable only in the FME Universal (Quick) Translator to also being usable in FME Workbench and Data Inspector.
Note: Any single DBF file can have a maximum file size of 2 GB, a limit imposed by the dBase III specification. Files larger than 2 GB may be readable, but not officially supported. Files larger than 2 GB are not writable, and will produce an error message.
Overview
A DBF file defines a single table within a database. The feature attribution of a FME feature are the columns and values of the DBF database table. There is no geometry or dimension to the features created from the DBF files. They are all undefined. Therefore, none of the features created are viewable because there is no graphical component to the features.
DBF files store only feature attribution. The DBF format has one physical file. The extension is added to the basename of the DBF file.
Reader Overview
The DBF reader produces an FME feature for each table entry held in the DBF files residing in the given folder.
The DBF reader first scans the folder for all DBF files that are defined in the workspace. It processes only the specified files if ID lines are available; otherwise, all files in the folder are read. The DBF reader extracts data from the file one row at a time, producing FME features before passing them on to the rest of FME for further processing. When the file is exhausted, the reader moves on to the next file in the folder.
Optionally a single DBF file can be given as the dataset. In this case, only the single file is read.
The reader supports dBASE III, dBASE IV, and FoxPro files.
Writer Overview
The DBF Writer writes all attributes of a feature to a DBF file. Features of the different feature types are written to different DBF files.