Dbase file format specification

Binary, memo, and OLE fields store data in. Each binary, memo, or OLE field of each record in the. The table file header:. DBT file; 83h with a memo. Number of records in the table. Number of bytes in the header. Number of bytes in the record. Field descriptor array the structure of this array is each shown below.

Table Field Descriptor Bytes. Field data address address is set in memory; not useful on disk. Field decimal count in binary. All OEM code page characters stored internally as 10 digits representing a. DBT block number. File Structure. Number of records in the file. Flag indicating incomplete transaction. The field descriptor array:. Start of Custom Property Descriptor Array.

Number of Referential Integrity RI properties. Start of data - this points past the Descriptor arrays to data used by the arrays - for example Custom property names are stored here. Actual size of structure, including data Note: in the. DBF this will be padded with zeroes to the nearest 0x, and may have 0x1A at the end. If the structure contains RI data, it will not be padded.

Generational number. More than one value may exist for a property. The current value is the value with the highest generational number. Table field offset - base one. Note: this will be 0 in the case of a constraint.

Which property is described in this record: 01 Required 02 Min 03 Max 04 Default 06 Database constraint. Offset from the start of this structure to the data for the property. The Required property has no data associated with it, so it is always 0. Width of database field associated with the property, and hence size of the data includes 0 terminator in the case of a constraint.

Offset from the start of this structure to the Custom property name. Length of the Custom property name. Offset from the start of this structure to the Custom property data. Length of the Custom property data does not include null terminator.

Sequential number, 1 based counting. One field subrecord exists for each field in the table. If the first byte is 0x00, the file is not associated with a database. Therefore, database files always contain 0x Byte offset Description 0 - 10 Field name with a maximum of 10 characters. If less than 10, it is padded with null characters 0x Table flags: 0x01 file has a structural.