What is a .dbf file?
dBASE Database Table · Data · Ashton-Tate (dBASE) · 1983
A .dbf file is a dBASE table: a simple flat database of records with fixed-width fields. The PC-era format survives everywhere, most visibly as the attribute table inside every Esri shapefile.
What is a .dbf file used for?
dBASE was the first mass-market PC database, and its table format outlived the product: FoxPro, Clipper and countless business systems adopted it, and GIS shapefiles still store their attributes in a .dbf today.
There is no fixed magic number: the first byte is a version code (for example 03) followed by the last-update date and record counts, so tools identify DBF structurally. Field names are capped at 10 characters, a limit GIS users still bump into.
How to open a .dbf file
The .dbf format opens in the following apps, grouped by operating system. If one app does not work, try another from the same list. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see how to open a .dbf file.
Windows
- LibreOffice Calc
- Excel (legacy support)
- QGIS (as attribute table)
macOS
- LibreOffice Calc
- QGIS
Linux
- LibreOffice Calc
- QGIS
- dbfread (Python)
How to convert a .dbf file
You can convert a .dbf file to csv, xlsx, sqlite using a conversion tool or the export menu of an app that opens it.
.dbf file signature (magic bytes)
Programs recognise a .dbf file by the bytes at the start of the file, not by its name. These are the signatures for DBF.
| Hex signature | Offset | Note |
|---|---|---|
| (no fixed signature) | 0 | no fixed magic; structure defined by a schema or header |
See the full magic-numbers reference for every format.
Frequently asked questions
What is a .dbf file?
A .dbf file is a dBASE table: a simple flat database of records with fixed-width fields. The PC-era format survives everywhere, most visibly as the attribute table inside every Esri shapefile.
How do I open a .dbf file?
LibreOffice Calc opens DBF tables directly and can save them back or export CSV. If the file belongs to a shapefile, open the .shp in QGIS and view the attribute table.
Can Excel open .dbf files?
Modern Excel still reads most .dbf files but can no longer save the format. For editing and re-saving DBF, use LibreOffice Calc.
Why are my column names cut off at 10 characters?
That is a hard limit of the DBF format itself, which is why shapefile attribute names are always short. Convert to GeoPackage or CSV to keep longer names.
Related formats
Sources
Details on this page were checked against authoritative references: