Open dBase and FoxPro .dbf tables in your browser - memo fields, code pages and deleted records included - then search, sort and export them to CSV, Excel or SQL. Got a spreadsheet instead? Use the Excel Viewer, and open plain tables in the CSV Viewer.
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table.dbf
Accents or Cyrillic letters look like ß or � The table was written in another code page - pick it here and the file is read again. Nothing changes on disk.
Open your table. Drop a .dbf file anywhere on the page or browse for it. Add its .dbt or .fpt memo file, or the .shp, .shx and .prj files of a shapefile, in the same go - a zipped shapefile works too.
Check the structure. The dBase or FoxPro version, code page and memo file are detected for you. The Fields view lists every field with its type, length and decimals.
Search, sort and filter. Search every record, click a field header to sort or filter it, hide or move fields, show deleted records, and open Row details to read one record field by field.
Export or copy. Export the whole table or the filtered records as CSV, Excel XLSX, JSON, SQL, Markdown or HTML, or copy a selection straight into a spreadsheet.
Keyboard shortcuts
Search all recordsCtrl + F
Copy the selectionCtrl + C
Select cellsShift + arrows
Jump to the edgeCtrl + arrows
Show the full value or memoEnter
Select everythingCtrl + A
DBF viewer features
Every dBase flavour
dBase III, IV, 5 and 7, FoxBASE, FoxPro 2.x, Visual FoxPro and Clipper tables, including VFP Integer, Currency, DateTime, Double and Varchar fields.
Memo fields
Drop the .dbt or .fpt file with the table and long texts appear in the grid, in Row details and in every export.
Code pages done right
The language driver byte picks CP437, CP850, CP866, Windows-1250 to 1257 or UTF-8 for you - and one click changes it.
Field structure
Name, type, length, decimals, offset and nullable or autoincrement flags of every field, ready to copy.
Search, sort, filter
Sort numbers and dates properly, filter with >, <, =, empty or regex, and search every record at once.
Deleted records
Records marked for deletion are counted and hidden - or shown with a Deleted column, so nothing gets lost.
Shapefile preview
Add the .shp file and see the shapes on a small map. Click one and its record lights up in the table.
100% private
Your table is read by your browser and never uploaded. Close the tab and it is gone.
What is a DBF file?
A DBF file is a database table in the dBase format.
It was created for dBase in the early 1980s and became one of the most copied file formats ever.
FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, Clipper and Harbour use it, and so does every shapefile in GIS. Accounting, inventory and point-of-sale programs still store data in DBF files today.
Inside, a DBF file is simple:
A header - the version, the date of the last update, the number of records and the code page.
Field descriptors - each field has a name of up to 10 characters, a type (Character, Numeric, Date, Logical, Memo and more), a length and decimals.
Fixed-width records - every record has the same size, and its first byte is a space or an asterisk for a deleted record.
A memo file - long texts and binary data sit in a .dbt (dBase) or .fpt (FoxPro) file next to the table. The record only stores a block number.
Index files such as .cdx, .mdx, .idx and .ntx only speed up searches. You do not need them to view a table.
How to open a DBF file on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android
The quickest way on any device is this page: open it, drop the file, done.
If you prefer an installed app, here is what each system offers.
Windows
Excel opens many DBF files through File > Open (choose All Files or dBase Files), but it cannot save as DBF, ignores memo files and often garbles DOS accents. LibreOffice Calc opens and saves DBF and asks for the character set.
Mac
macOS has no DBF app, and Numbers cannot open the format. LibreOffice Calc works on Mac, and QGIS opens shapefile attribute tables - or use this viewer in Safari or Chrome.
iPhone and iPad
There is no built-in DBF viewer on iOS. Open this page in Safari, tap the drop area and pick the .dbf (plus its memo file) from Files or iCloud Drive.
Android
Android has no DBF viewer either. Open this page in Chrome and pick the file from Downloads or Google Drive - nothing to install.
Chromebook
Google Sheets cannot import DBF files, so this viewer is the easiest option. Export to XLSX or CSV if you want to keep working in Sheets.
How to convert a DBF file
Every export is built into the viewer, so there is nothing else to open.
Open the table, filter or tidy it if you like, then pick a format under Export.
DBF to CSV - comma, semicolon, tab or pipe, in UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, UTF-16 or a Windows code page. Open the result in the CSV Viewer or the TSV Viewer.
DBF to Excel (XLSX) - numbers stay numbers, the header gets a filter, and columns are sized to fit. Check it in the Excel Viewer.
DBF to JSON - an array of objects keyed by field name, with numbers and logicals typed and empty fields as null. Explore it in the JSON Viewer.
DBF to SQL - CREATE TABLE with types taken from the field definitions, plus batched INSERTs for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite or SQL Server. Review it in the SQL Viewer.
DBF to Markdown or HTML - a ready table for documentation, wikis or emails.
Memo texts are exported in full, and the text is converted from the old code page to Unicode on the way.
The table was read with the wrong code page. DOS programs wrote CP437, CP850 or CP866, Windows programs Windows-1250 to 1257. The viewer follows the language driver byte, but some programs never set it - pick the right code page under Options.
Why are my memo fields empty or showing numbers?
The memo file was not opened with the table. Select the .dbf and the .dbt or .fpt with the same name together, or click Add the memo file. If memos point past the end of the memo file, it is older than the table or was cut off.
"Not a valid dBase file" or "Table is corrupted"
A cut-off copy is the usual cause. When the header promises more records than the file holds, the viewer still opens every record that survived and tells you how many are missing.
Deleted records showed up again
Deleted records stay in the file until the table is packed. Some programs show them, others hide them - here they are hidden by default and one switch shows them with a Deleted column.
The shapefile opens without a map
The geometry lives in the .shp file. Drop it together with the .dbf (and the .shx, .prj and .cpg), or drop the zipped shapefile. Compressed archives you cannot open? Look inside with the ZIP File Viewer first.
DBF vs CSV vs XLSX vs SQL
All four can hold the same table, but they suit different jobs.
Format
What it is
Good for
Watch out for
DBF
Binary dBase table with typed, fixed-width fields
Legacy apps, FoxPro, shapefile attributes
10-character field names, old code pages, separate memo file
CSV
Plain text, comma-separated
Moving data between almost any apps
No field types, separator and encoding vary
XLSX
Zipped Excel workbook
Formatting, formulas, several sheets
1,048,576 row limit, needs a spreadsheet app
SQL
Text script of CREATE and INSERT statements
Loading the data into a modern database
Dialects differ between MySQL, PostgreSQL and others
Need another viewer? Browse all file viewers for documents, images and archives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Drop the .dbf file onto this page or click to browse. It opens right away as a table you can search, sort and filter.
If the table has memo fields, select the .dbt or .fpt file with the same name too. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded.
Excel can still open many dBase files through File > Open, but it cannot save them as DBF any more, it ignores memo files and it often gets accents wrong.
A quicker route is to open the DBF here and export it as Excel XLSX - numbers stay numbers and the text is converted to Unicode. Check the result in the Excel Viewer.
Open the DBF file here, then choose Export and pick CSV, Excel XLSX, JSON or SQL.
You can export the whole table or only the records left after a search or filter, and pick the CSV delimiter and encoding.
Long texts are not stored in the .dbf itself but in a separate memo file: .dbt for dBase and .fpt for FoxPro and Visual FoxPro. Without it you only see block numbers.
Drop both files together, or use the Add the memo file button after opening the table.
DBF files are saved in an old code page such as CP437, CP850, CP866 or Windows-1252, and the program reading them has to use the same one.
The viewer reads the language driver byte in the header (or the .cpg file of a shapefile) and also recognises UTF-8. If letters still look wrong, pick another code page under Options.
The attributes of a shapefile live in its .dbf file. Drop the .dbf together with the .shp, .shx, .prj and .cpg files, or drop the whole zipped shapefile.
You get the attribute table plus a simple map preview where clicking a shape selects its record.
dBase and FoxPro do not remove a deleted record straight away - they only mark it with an asterisk until the table is packed.
The viewer hides these records by default, counts them in the table check, and shows them with a Deleted column when you switch on Show deleted records.
No. The table is read by your own browser and never leaves your device, so it is safe for customer lists, accounting data and other private records. Close the tab and it is gone.
