Free online DBF to XLS converter

Legacy business, GIS, and accounting software may export records only as DBF, while a recipient may require an Excel workbook for editing, filtering, printing, or sharing. Converting the table to XLS also makes it accessible to software that supports the older Microsoft Excel format.

What the DBF format is

DBF is a dBASE-family database table format used by dBASE, FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, Clipper, GIS applications, accounting systems, point-of-sale software, and other legacy programs. A DBF table stores records in rows and typed fields such as character, numeric, date, and logical values.

Some tables use separate memo files for long text: commonly .dbt with dBASE and FoxPro variants, or .fpt with Visual FoxPro. Index files such as .mdx may also accompany a table. The .dbf file contains the field definitions and ordinary field values, but a memo file may be required to preserve the contents of long-text fields.

What the XLS format is

XLS is the binary workbook format associated with Microsoft Excel 97–2003. It can contain worksheets, formulas, formatting, filters, charts, and multiple sheets, so it is suitable when the receiving application specifically requires the older Excel format.

Each XLS worksheet is limited to 65,536 rows and 256 columns. Use XLSX or another database export when the source table exceeds either limit or when the recipient does not require XLS.

Convert with LibreOffice Calc

1. Copy the original .dbf and keep any related .dbt or .fpt files in the same folder. Work from the copy so the source remains unchanged.
2. Open LibreOffice Calc and choose File → Open, then select the DBF file.
3. In the import dialog, choose the encoding used by the source system. Common legacy files use an OEM or Windows code page; newer exports may specify another encoding. If accented characters look wrong, reopen the source with a different encoding.
4. Check field names, column order, dates, decimal separators, leading zeros, and memo text. Account numbers, postal codes, and other identifiers stored as numeric DBF fields can lose leading zeros when interpreted as numbers.
5. Choose File → Save As, select Excel 97–2003 (.xls), and save the workbook.
6. If Calc warns that the selected format may lose features, confirm that the Excel 97–2003 format should be used.

Open the saved workbook in Excel or another compatible spreadsheet program and compare representative records with the original table. Convert each DBF table separately when a folder contains several related tables; saving one table as XLS does not preserve database relationships or joins.

Convert on 101convert.com

You can convert the file on 101convert.com for free without installing software: upload the .dbf file, select XLS as the output format, start the conversion, and download the resulting workbook. A desktop importer is preferable for confidential, personal, financial, or regulated data, and for DBF tables whose memo fields must be preserved from companion files.

Check compatibility and data quality

DBF is a family of related formats rather than one completely uniform specification. Field types, date conventions, deleted-record handling, memo storage, and character encoding can vary between dBASE, FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, and application-specific exports.

Conversion changes database fields into spreadsheet cells. Numeric fields may receive spreadsheet number formatting, logical fields may become Boolean or text values, and dates may display differently because the spreadsheet applies its own date system and formatting. Preserve identifiers as text when leading zeros or exact digit strings matter.

Memo content can be omitted or truncated if the required .dbt or .fpt file is missing or unsupported. DBF indexes, relationships, validation rules, deleted-record status, field constraints, and database-specific metadata do not become XLS spreadsheet features. Verify row counts, column names, non-ASCII text, dates, totals, and long-text fields before distributing the converted workbook.