Hello Hilton,

Have u tried smth? For example using DBF over ODBC/OLEDB provides?
If you really anxion about performantc in can turn out that only direct access
to DB will help u - I'm not shure whether C# native libs for DBF exists but
there are several unmanaged like codebase or alxbase

---
WBR,  Michael  Nemtsev [.NET/C# MVP].  
My blog: http://spaces.live.com/laflour
Team blog: http://devkids.blogspot.com/

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we
miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it" (c) Michelangelo

H> Hi,
H>
H> What is the easiest way to read DBF files in C#?  This is a
H> preprocessing step and performance is a very low priority.  I don't
H> need to process indices etc, just read each record, grab text data
H> out of a few fields and move to the next record.
H>
H> Thanks,
H>
H> Hilton
H>

Hi Hilton,

Assuming your DBFs are FoxPro DBFs, you can download the FoxPro and Visual
FoxPro OLE DB data provider from the link before my signature. It works with
all versions of FoxPro DBFs.

Here's some example VB code:

Try

   Dim cn1 As New OleDbConnection( _
       "Provider=VFPOLEDB.1;Data Source=C:\Temp\;")
   cn1.Open()
   '-- Make some VFP data to play with
   Dim cmd1 As New OleDbCommand( _
       "Create Table TestDBF (Field1 I, Field2 C(10))", cn1)
   Dim cmd2 As New OleDbCommand( _
       "Insert Into TestDBF Values (1, 'Hello')", cn1)
   Dim cmd3 As New OleDbCommand( _
       "Insert Into TestDBF Values (2, 'World')", cn1)
   cmd1.ExecuteNonQuery()
   cmd2.ExecuteNonQuery()
   cmd3.ExecuteNonQuery()
   cn1.Close()

   Dim cn2 As New OleDbConnection( _
       "Provider=VFPOLEDB.1;Data Source=C:\Temp\;")
   cn2.Open()

   Dim cmd4 As New OleDbCommand( _
       "Select * From TestDBF", cn2)
   Dim da1 As New OleDbDataAdapter(cmd4)
   Dim ds1 As New DataSet
   Dim dr1 As DataRow
   da1.Fill(ds1)
   For Each dr1 In ds1.Tables(0).Rows
       Console.WriteLine(dr1.Item(1).ToString())
   Next
   Console.ReadLine()
   cn2.Close()

Catch e As Exception
   MsgBox(e.ToString())
End Try

¤ Hi,
¤
¤ What is the easiest way to read DBF files in C#?  This is a preprocessing
¤ step and performance is a very low priority.  I don't need to process
¤ indices etc, just read each record, grab text data out of a few fields and
¤ move to the next record.

You can use the Jet OLEDB Provider and dBase ISAM driver (should be easy to convert the following to
C#):

       Dim ConnectionString As String

       ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
           "Data Source=e:\My Documents\dBase;Extended Properties=dBase IV"
       Dim dBaseConnection As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(ConnectionString)
       dBaseConnection.Open()

       Dim dBaseCommand As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM MyDBase",
dBaseConnection)
       Dim dBaseDataReader As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataReader =
dBaseCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.SequentialAccess)

       While dBaseDataReader.Read
           Console.WriteLine(dBaseDataReader("Column1").ToString)
           Console.WriteLine(dBaseDataReader("Column2").ToString)
           Console.WriteLine(dBaseDataReader("Column3").ToString)
       End While

       dBaseConnection.Close()

Just keep in mind that the Data Source for a dBase file is the folder path of the file location The
filename is specified in the SQL statement (sans file extension).

Paul
~~~~
Microsoft MVP (Visual Basic)