📚 dbfread2

🚀 A modern Python library for reading DBF files with elegance and type safety

dbfread2 is a modern, type-safe Python library for reading DBF files (dBase, Visual FoxPro, FoxBase+) with zero external dependencies.

✨ Highlights

• 🐍 Modern Python 3.12+ implementation
• 🔍 Comprehensive type hints
• 🛠️ Simple yet powerful API
• 📁 Native pathlib.Path support
• 🔄 Streaming and memory-loaded modes
• 📝 Support for all major DBF variants
• 📋 18 field types with extensible FieldParser
• 📎 Reads FPT and DBT memo files
• 🔒 Type-safe operations

🚀 Quick Start

from dbfread2 import DBF

# Stream records (memory-efficient)
for record in DBF('people.dbf'):
    print(record)
# {'NAME': 'Alice', 'BIRTHDATE': datetime.date(1987, 3, 1)}
# {'NAME': 'Bob', 'BIRTHDATE': datetime.date(1980, 11, 12)}

# Load all records into memory
table = DBF('people.dbf', preload=True)
print(table.records[0]['NAME'])  # Returns: 'Alice'

📦 Installation

pip install dbfread2

🔄 Migration from dbfread

Key Changes

1. Python Version

   • ✅ Python 3.12+ required
   • ❌ No support for older versions

2. Import Updates

   # Before ❌
   from dbfread import DBF
   # After ✅
   from dbfread2 import DBF

3. Modern Parameter Names

   # Before ❌
   DBF('file.dbf', recfactory=dict, lowernames=True)
   # After ✅
   DBF('file.dbf', record_factory=dict, lowercase_names=True)

4. Path Support

   # ✨ New Feature
   from pathlib import Path
   DBF(Path('data/file.dbf'))

🛠️ Development

Setup

1. Install Tools

   • mise-en-place for environment management
   • uv for package management

2. Clone & Setup

   git clone https://github.com/wasdee/dbfread2.git
   cd dbfread2
   mise install
   uv pip install -e ".[docs]"

📚 Documentation

mise run docs:build    # Build docs
mise run docs:serve    # Serve locally
mise run docs:watch    # Watch mode
mise run docs:check    # Check for issues

✅ Code Quality

• 🧹 ruff - Linting & formatting
• 🔍 mypy - Static type checking

📝 Writing DBF Files

While dbfread2 focuses on reading DBF files, here are recommended libraries for writing DBF files:

Recommended DBF Writers

1. dbf (by Ethan Furman)

   • Most comprehensive DBF writer
   • Supports multiple DBF formats (dBase III+, FP, VFP, Clipper)
   • Rich field type support including memo fields
   • Memory-efficient operations
   • GitHub

2. pybase3

   • Modern SQL-like interface
   • Simple API focused on dBase III
   • Active development
   • Built-in CLI tools
   • GitHub

3. ydbf

   • Clean, modern Python implementation
   • Streaming write support
   • No external dependencies
   • Good for basic DBF operations
   • GitHub

Choose based on your needs:

• Use dbf for enterprise/legacy systems needing comprehensive format support
• Use pybase3 for modern, simple dBase III operations
• Use ydbf for basic operations with clean Python code

📄 License

MIT License

🙏 Credits

Fork of dbfread by Ole Martin Bjørndalen

📬 Contact

Nutchanon Ninyawee - [email protected]

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