Python script to convert DBF database file to CSV

README.md

Python script to convert DBF database file to CSV

• First download dbfpy: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dbfpy/files/latest/download?source=files
• Then install: sudo python setup.py install

To convert DBF file to CSV:

./dbf2csv database.dbf

dbf2csv.py

#!/usr/bin/python

import csv
from dbfpy import dbf
import os
import sys

filename = sys.argv[1]
if filename.endswith('.dbf'):
    print "Converting %s to csv" % filename
    csv_fn = filename[:-4]+ ".csv"
    with open(csv_fn,'wb') as csvfile:
        in_db = dbf.Dbf(filename)
        out_csv = csv.writer(csvfile)
        names = []
        for field in in_db.header.fields:
            names.append(field.name)
        out_csv.writerow(names)
        for rec in in_db:
            out_csv.writerow(rec.fieldData)
        in_db.close()
        print "Done..."
else:
  print "Filename does not end with .dbf"

@traut21 the script is quite old and was originally written for Python 2.7.

To make it compatible with Python 3, you'll need to call the print statements as a function. Simply add parentheses around the print statements, and that should do the trick!

Here's the updated version of the script:

#!/usr/bin/python

import csv
from dbfpy import dbf
import os
import sys

filename = sys.argv[1]
if filename.endswith('.dbf'):
    print(f"Converting {filename} to csv")
    csv_fn = filename[:-4]+ ".csv"
    with open(csv_fn,'wb') as csvfile:
        in_db = dbf.Dbf(filename)
        out_csv = csv.writer(csvfile)
        names = []
        for field in in_db.header.fields:
            names.append(field.name)
        out_csv.writerow(names)
        for rec in in_db:
            out_csv.writerow(rec.fieldData)
        in_db.close()
        print("Done...")
else:
  print("Filename does not end with .dbf")

thanks, now I know that this script had been written for P 2.7

Your script tells me
print repr(_rec) ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Last release of dbfpy was in 2015, most certainly it wasn't updated to py3.

If this is only a one time use just install python 2.7.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Yes, it's a one time use where the dbf has too many lines for LibreOffice