Free online DB to XML converter

Applications that exchange structured records, migration tools, and archival systems may require XML instead of a proprietary database file. Converting the data makes it available to systems that cannot open the original database and allows it to be validated against an XML schema.

What the DB format is

.db is a generic filename extension, not a single database format. It may identify a SQLite database, dBase table, application-specific store, or data created by an embedded, mobile, desktop, or business application. The extension alone does not identify the database engine or determine which converter can read the file.

Identify the software that created the file before converting it. For a suspected SQLite file on Linux or macOS, run file input.db; a normal SQLite database contains the signature SQLite format 3. Microsoft Access databases usually use .mdb or .accdb and should be exported through Access or an Access-compatible driver. Opening an unknown database in a text editor is not a reliable identification method because most database formats are binary.

What the XML format is

XML is a text format that represents structured data with elements and attributes, for example <customer><name>Ana</name></customer>. Integration platforms, document systems, configuration tools, and import utilities use XML because it is platform-independent, Unicode-aware, and supported by standard parsers and validation tools.

XML does not automatically preserve database indexes, triggers, permissions, query plans, views, or every relational constraint. The export must define how tables, relationships, nulls, dates, binary values, and identifiers map to XML. A multi-table database may be exported as separate table elements or as a custom nested document required by the destination system.

How to convert a DB file to XML

Use the built-in converter

For a one-off conversion, upload the file to the free converter on 101convert.com, choose XML as the output format, start the conversion, and download the result. The converter must recognize the database type and be able to read its schema and records. Do not upload confidential, personal, or regulated data unless the service's handling terms meet your requirements.

Export SQLite with Python

Python's standard library can read SQLite and create well-formed XML without an additional package. Save this script as db_to_xml.py:

import sqlite3
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

source = "input.db"
target = "output.xml"

def quote_identifier(name):
    return '"' + name.replace('"', '""') + '"'

with sqlite3.connect(source) as connection:
    connection.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
    root = ET.Element("database")
    tables = connection.execute(
        "SELECT name FROM sqlite_master "
        "WHERE type = 'table' AND name NOT LIKE 'sqlite_%' ORDER BY name"
    )
    for (table_name,) in tables:
        table_element = ET.SubElement(root, "table", {"name": table_name})
        columns = [row[1] for row in connection.execute(
            "PRAGMA table_info(" + quote_identifier(table_name) + ")"
        )]
        query = "SELECT * FROM " + quote_identifier(table_name)
        for record in connection.execute(query):
            row_element = ET.SubElement(table_element, "row")
            for column_name in columns:
                field = ET.SubElement(row_element, "field", {"name": column_name})
                value = record[column_name]
                if value is not None:
                    field.text = value.hex() if isinstance(value, bytes) else str(value)

ET.ElementTree(root).write(target, encoding="utf-8", xml_declaration=True)

Run it with python db_to_xml.py, changing source and target if necessary. The output contains one table element per user table, one row per record, and a field element for each column. Column names are stored in the name attribute so names that are invalid XML element names do not break the document. Null values become empty fields, and SQLite BLOB values become hexadecimal text; both mappings must match the receiving application's expectations.

Export Microsoft Access data

Open the database in Access, select the table or query, and choose External Data → Export → More → XML File. Select the data, schema, and presentation options requested by the destination. Export a query instead of a raw table when the XML must contain filtered, joined, or calculated data.

Convert other database types

Use the application that created the file and its XML export command whenever possible. If no XML export exists, export a selected table or query to CSV, then transform the CSV with a script that implements the destination XML schema. A generic converter cannot safely infer proprietary fields, relationships, date formats, encodings, or the intended XML structure from an unidentified .db file.

Quality and compatibility checks

Parse the result before importing it. For the Python output, run python -c "import xml.etree.ElementTree as E; E.parse('output.xml'); print('valid XML')". If the destination supplies an XSD, validate against that schema as well; syntactically valid XML can still have incorrect element names, types, order, or required fields.

Check timestamp and date conventions, decimal separators, Unicode characters, duplicate column names, empty values, generated IDs, and foreign-key references. XML 1.0 has no universal mapping for database behavior such as triggers, indexes, permissions, or foreign-key enforcement. Binary fields need an agreed encoding such as hexadecimal or Base64. Very large databases can produce impractically large XML files, so export only the required tables or records when a complete database dump is unnecessary.