dbfread

A lightweight parser for DBF (dBase/Visual FoxPro) files with memo support, written in TypeScript.

Features

- 🚀 Lightweight: No external dependencies, pure TypeScript/JavaScript
- 📄 Memo Support: Automatically detects and parses associated .fpt memo files
- 🔧 TypeScript: Full TypeScript support with type definitions
- 📊 Multiple Data Types: Supports all common DBF field types
- 🎯 Simple API: Easy-to-use function with minimal configuration
- 🧪 Well Tested: Comprehensive test suite

Installation

``bash
npm install dbfread
`

Quick Start

`typescript
import { parseDBF } from 'dbfread';

// Parse a DBF file
const records = parseDBF('./path/to/your/file.dbf');

// Each record is a plain object with field names as keys
console.log(records[0]);
// Output: { id: 1, name: "John Doe", age: 30, active: true }
`

API Reference

$3

Parses a DBF file and returns an array of records.

Parameters:
- dbfPath (string): Path to the .dbf file
- encoding (optional string): Text encoding (defaults to Windows-1252)

Returns:
- Array of record objects where keys are field names

Supported Field Types

| Type | Description | JavaScript Type |
|------|-------------|-----------------|
| C | Character/String | string |
| N | Numeric | number |
| F | Float | number |
| D | Date | Date |
| L | Logical/Boolean | boolean |
| M | Memo | string |
| I | Integer | number |
| B | Binary/Double | number |
| Y | Currency | number |
| T | DateTime | Date |
| O | Double | number |

Examples

$3

`typescript
import { parseDBF } from 'dbfread';

const records = parseDBF('./data/employees.dbf');

records.forEach(record => {
console.log(${record.name}: ${record.salary});
});
`

$3

`typescript
import { parseDBF } from 'dbfread';

// Use UTF-8 encoding
const records = parseDBF('./data/employees.dbf', 'utf-8');

// Use Windows-1251 encoding
const records = parseDBF('./data/employees.dbf', 'windows-1251');
`

$3

`typescript
import { parseDBF } from 'dbfread';

const records = parseDBF('./data/employees.dbf');

// Memo fields are automatically parsed if .fpt file exists
records.forEach(record => {
if (record.notes) {
console.log(Notes for ${record.name}: ${record.notes});
}
});
`

$3

`typescript
import { parseDBF } from 'dbfread';

interface Employee {
id: number;
name: string;
salary: number;
hireDate: Date;
active: boolean;
notes?: string;
}

const records = parseDBF('./data/employees.dbf') as Employee[];

records.forEach((employee: Employee) => {
console.log(${employee.name} was hired on ${employee.hireDate.toLocaleDateString()});
});
`

File Format Support

This library supports:
- dBase III+ (.dbf files)
- Visual FoxPro (.dbf files)
- Memo files (.fpt files) - automatically detected and parsed
- Various encodings - with fallback to Windows-1252

Development

`bash


Install dependencies

npm install

Run tests

npm test

Run tests with coverage

npm run test:coverage

Build the project

npm run build
``

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Repository

📦 GitHub: https://github.com/richardhristov/dbfread