dBASE IV
dBASE IV is a database application. With the dBASE IV connector, the integration platform can read and write dBASE IV files. The primary data file usually has a .DBF extension and the memo file usually has a .DBT extension. dBASE files are structured; for example, both the data and the file structure are stored inside the primary data file.
Other dBASE IV Applications
Many applications use the dBASE format for data storage. The following information is generally true for most of these applications. However, if you are transforming to or from one of these other applications, refer to it by its own name in the documentation for information specific to that application.
Some other supported dBASE IV format types include:
• Alpha Four
• Clipper
• GoldMine
• GoldMine Import File (DBF)
• MAILERS+4 (dBASE)
See Also
Connector-Specific Notes
• Field Names: Each field name must be unique. Field names must be all uppercase characters with an underscore between two words. Field names may contain up to 10 characters, but the first character must be a letter. Examples include ACCOUNT, LAST_NAME, FIRST_NAME, PHONE_NO.
• Field Length: Character fields can be no longer than 254 characters. If a field is longer than 254 characters, use the Memo data type.
• Number of Fields: A maximum of 255 fields are allowed.
• Record Width: The maximum combined width of all fields in one record is 4000 bytes, excluding memo fields.
Property Options
You can set the following source (S) and target (T) properties.
Data Types
The following data types are available:
• Character - may contain alpha or numeric information and may have a field width of 1 to 254 bytes. Use a character field to store numbers that are not used in calculations, such as phone numbers, check numbers, account numbers and zip codes (number fields delete the leading zeros in some zip codes).
• Date - may contain only a date and the date is formatted as yyyymmdd, for a four-digit year, a two-digit month and a two-digit day. Example: The date January 1, 1999 would read 19990101.
• Float - may contain only positive or negative numbers and may have a field width of 1 to 20 bytes, including the decimal point, minus sign (–), or plus sign (+). Float fields are used to store small and large numbers needed in scientific calculations, such as 9.1234e 12 or 9,123,400,000,000.
• Logical - may contain only one byte and is formatted to contain t, f, T, or F, for true or false.
• Memo - may contain alpha or numeric information and may have a field width of 1 to 16,000 bytes.
• Numeric - may contain only positive or negative numbers and may have a field width of 1 to 20 bytes, including the decimal point, minus sign (–), or plus sign (+). A numeric field may contain decimal places up to 19, but the number of decimal places must be set at one byte less than the total width of the field. Numeric fields are used to store the exact value of a number with a fixed number of digits.
If you are writing to a new table, you may use any of these available data types from the list that appears when you click the arrow in the Type cell of a field.
If you are appending data to an existing table, the data type of each field uses the data type in the selected table by default.