Miscellaneous Database Tips

From NeoWiki

The following are miscellaneous database-related tips which currently do not have enough content to warrant a full article and which have no other home.

Contents 1 dbf import tip 1.1 Connecting to dbf files in Base 1.2 importing into Calc 1.3 Issues with DB2K files 2 MS Access-related tips 3 Related External Links

dbf import tip

Connecting to dbf files in Base

You can use Base to connect to one or more dbf files.

1. Go to the File menu and choose New and then Database
2. In the first pane of the Database Wizard, Choose Connect to an Existing Database
3. Set the drop-down to dBase
4. Click Next>>
5. In the next pane, click on the Browse button
6. Navigate to the folder in which the dbf files are found
   • You cannot choose a file, you must select a folder.
7. Click Open
8. Click Next>>
9. In the Save and Proceed pane, select the settings as desired
10. Click on Finish

importing into Calc

The table structure of the dbf file for all the fields containing leading apostrophes say they are characters. This can easily seen if you import the DBF file and look at the first row. All columns have a header defining it. C is for characters (text), N would be numeric.

So Calc imports the values correctly as Characters. As the number format for the default template is set to numeric, a apostrophe is placed in front of the value to make it a text.

To change such text values to real numeric values, you have several choices:

They are described in this article in NeoWiki.

You can also change the field setting in the DBF from C to N and re-import the file.

Issues with DB2K files

older dbf files in the DB2K format are not compatible with NeoOffice or OpenOffice.org. When the connection is made, most fields will show <OBJECT> for data in Base and #N/A in Calc. If you have a Windows machine available, the solution is to use the dbf-converter program to convert these files to dBase-IV format, which NeoOffice does support.

MS Access-related tips

Well, a lack of drivers will definitely cause files to not be openable. Anything that requires the MS ODBC bridges won't work for sure, including Access files.

An ODBC driver that works with MS Access on a Mac is the Actual ODBC driver. It is a commercial one, but it works. The MySQL Migration Toolkit for the Mac can be found in the MySQL GUI Tools Bundle and can be used to move data from an MS Access database to a MySQL one (which NeoOffice will happily deal with). Other options are discussed on the Trinity forum.

Related External Links

• OOo wiki article on using Base to connect to Access