Free online CSV to DBF converter

A legacy accounting, GIS, or database program may require a dBASE table instead of a delimited text file. Converting the data creates a DBF table with defined field types, widths, and encoding that compatible software can open directly.

What the CSV format is

CSV (Comma-Separated Values) stores table rows as text records separated by line breaks and fields separated by commas or another delimiter, such as semicolons or tabs. Fields containing delimiters, quotation marks, or line breaks are normally enclosed in double quotation marks.

Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, and Google Sheets export CSV files. Database systems, reporting tools, laboratory software, and custom applications use CSV for data exchange because it can be read without a specialized database engine. CSV does not reliably preserve field types, indexes, relationships, formatting, or a universal character encoding.

What the DBF format is

DBF is the table format associated with dBASE and used by Visual FoxPro, Clipper, older accounting systems, and many GIS applications. A DBF file stores records with named fields and types such as character, numeric, logical, and date. Unlike CSV, its fields have defined lengths and its records use a fixed table structure.

DBF is appropriate when a legacy application specifically requires a dBASE table or when attribute data must accompany an ESRI Shapefile. Its fixed definitions make reading predictable for older software, but they impose limits on field names, widths, null values, dates, and Unicode. For broad compatibility, use unique field names of no more than 10 characters; some DBF variants and newer applications support different limits.

How to convert a CSV file to DBF

Using LibreOffice Calc

1. Open the CSV file, such as customers.csv, in LibreOffice Calc.
2. In the text-import dialog, select the actual delimiter and source character encoding, then inspect the preview. Set identifier columns such as postal codes or account numbers to Text so leading zeroes remain intact.
3. Check dates, decimal separators, blank values, and fields containing commas or line breaks. Correct parsing errors before export.
4. Choose File → Save As, enter a name such as customers.dbf, and select dBase as the file type.
5. Accept the format confirmation and select the DBF character set when Calc requests it. Reopen the resulting file in the target application to check field names, values, dates, and non-ASCII characters.

Explicitly selecting the delimiter is necessary for semicolon- or tab-delimited files; relying on the filename extension can import the entire row as one column.

Using the built-in converter

You can convert the file on 101convert.com for free without installing software: select the CSV file, choose DBF as the output format, start the conversion, and download the generated table. Verify the result in the receiving program, particularly when the data contains confidential information or non-ASCII characters.

Automating recurring conversions

For repeatable imports, Python can create a DBF with the dbf package. Install it with:

pip install dbf

Define the schema before inserting records, for example name C(80); amount N(12,2); active L; created D. Read the source with Python’s csv.DictReader, convert numeric, logical, and date values explicitly, and append the records to the table. A defined schema allows validation, encoding selection, and error handling to remain consistent across batches.

Quality and compatibility limits

• Field names: Rename long or duplicate headers before export. Use unique names of 10 characters or fewer and avoid punctuation for older dBASE and GIS software.
• Field widths: Character and numeric fields have fixed widths. A value that exceeds its declared width may be truncated or rejected, and numeric values may overflow if the width or decimal precision is too small.
• Data types: Values that look like dates, numbers, or booleans remain text until the converter assigns types. Keep identifiers as character fields rather than converting them to numbers.
• Encoding: Older DBF readers may expect a Windows code page instead of UTF-8. Accented, Cyrillic, or Asian characters can be corrupted when the selected code page does not match the target application.
• Dates and empty values: Traditional DBF date fields store dates without timestamps. Older readers may not distinguish consistently between an empty value, zero, and a database null.
• GIS datasets: A standalone DBF contains attribute records only. A Shapefile dataset also needs matching .shp and .shx files, and usually a .prj file. Converting or renaming a DBF does not create geographic geometry.
• Indexes and relationships: CSV has no indexes or relationships, and a basic export does not create DBF index files. Rebuild those structures in the destination application if required.