Save As DBF

  • Thread starter Thread starter Niteschool
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Niteschool

Saving files as .dbf has been omitted from Excel 2007. My GIS staff use this
quite extensively. What are other GIS users using to create the DBF files
since 2007 can not make them?
 
Niteschool said:
Saving files as .dbf has been omitted from Excel 2007. My GIS staff use this
quite extensively. What are other GIS users using to create the DBF files
since 2007 can not make them?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warning. This is an exclusion that I wouldn't have known
was missing until I *really* needed it.

Phil
 
Niteschool said:
Saving files as .dbf has been omitted from Excel 2007. My GIS staff use this
quite extensively. What are other GIS users using to create the DBF files
since 2007 can not make them?
Click to expand...

XLSX2DBF is an Excel 2007 add-in that helps convert and/or save a native DBF
file that was edited with Excel 2007.

Two common scenarios are supported:

A) Open a native DBF file in Excel 2007 – Make changes – Save as a native
DBF file with the changes.

B) Open/create an Excel file that looks like a database
(headers/columns/rows) – Save as a native DBF file.

http://thexlwiz.blogspot.com/

Gyula
 
Hi there,

just wanted to let you know that I released a new version of the add-
in that enables saving a DBF file in Excel 2007.

New features:

1. Now you can add/insert new fields, create calculated fields in
addition to adding new records or editing existing records in your
native DBF file!

2. If you start with an Excel file the software now have enhanced
capabilities to determine the field types (better than Microsoft's own
in earlier Excel versions).

3. The add-in checks DBase field naming conventions and also
identifies duplicate fields. All problem field names are visually
identified with a cell comment!

4. If you start out with a brand new file and forget to save it, the
add-in will ask before the conversion.

5. Large files are supported. I edited files over 500,000 records with
no problem.

See the post at http://thexlwiz.blogspot.com/.

Gyula
 
Dear Fellow DBF Users,

The latest upgrade of the SaveDBF Excel 2007 add-in (used to be called
XLSX2DBF) can be tried at thexlwiz.blogspot.com.

The changes include fixes related to minor bugs in Microsoft's OLEDB engine
and some improved field type identification for users who start out with an
Excel file.

Future plans:

I plan one more upgrade in Jan/Feb 2010. This will be a major upgrade with
lots of planned improvements as listed below:

- Add a Preference window where users can set to:

Overwrite the original DBF file (and create a date-stamped backup file
in the same folder)
Mimic Microsoft's Excel 2003 behaviour (i.e. automatically replace
spaces in field names with an underscore, accept field names longer than 10
characters)

- Add a Data Conversion window where the user can change the field type and
size from what the add-in determined from the data. This is useful for people
who start with an Excel file with data that do not necessarily reflect the
maximum field size for a character field, for example. The add-in will guess
the maximum size from the data, but the user can over-ride it in the new
window. Or you can simply click OK and the add-in will behave exactly as it
does now.

- Batch processing capabilities (i.e. calling the macro from a third party
program (e.g. Python or Perl or C++ etc) and mass-process many files without
user interaction.

- Improved speed for very large DBF files and a progress bar with % complete
reported.

If you have other improvement ideas this is the time to email them to me at
gygulyas - a t - yahoo - do t - ca!

Thank you very much for your continued support!

Long live the DBF!

Gyula
 
roblem: Microsoft Office 2007 Excel does not allow tables to be saved as
..dbf format

Article ID: 34102
Bug Id: N/A
Software: ArcGIS - ArcEditor 9.2, 9.3, 9.3.1 ArcGIS - ArcInfo 9.2, 9.3,
9.3.1 ArcGIS - ArcView 9.2, 9.3, 9.3.1
Platforms: Windows 2003Server, Vista
Description
When working with a table in Microsoft Excel 2007, there is no option to
save the table in .dbf (dBASE) format as in previous versions.

Cause
This is by design with Microsoft Office 2007.

Solution or Workaround
Export an Excel table to .dbf format in ArcGIS.

In Excel 2007, save the table as, 'Excel 97-2003 Workbook' (.xls format).
Navigate to the .xls table location through ArcCatalog, and expand the file
to view the worksheets.
Right-click on the worksheet representing the table. Select Export > To
dBase (single).

if you can't read this properly then go to the following link it tells u
step by step what to do from ESRI

http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=knowledgebase.techarticles.articleShow&d=34102
 
esri star said:
roblem: Microsoft Office 2007 Excel does not allow tables to be saved as
.dbf format

Article ID: 34102
Bug Id: N/A
Software: ArcGIS - ArcEditor 9.2, 9.3, 9.3.1 ArcGIS - ArcInfo 9.2, 9.3,
9.3.1 ArcGIS - ArcView 9.2, 9.3, 9.3.1
Platforms: Windows 2003Server, Vista
Description
When working with a table in Microsoft Excel 2007, there is no option to
save the table in .dbf (dBASE) format as in previous versions.

Cause
This is by design with Microsoft Office 2007.

Solution or Workaround
Export an Excel table to .dbf format in ArcGIS.

In Excel 2007, save the table as, 'Excel 97-2003 Workbook' (.xls format).
Navigate to the .xls table location through ArcCatalog, and expand the file
to view the worksheets.
Right-click on the worksheet representing the table. Select Export > To
dBase (single).

if you can't read this properly then go to the following link it tells u
step by step what to do from ESRI

http://support.esri.com/index.cfm?fa=knowledgebase.techarticles.articleShow&d=34102
Click to expand...

Has anyone asked the obvious question of ""WHY MiCROSOFT TOOK FUNCTIONALITY
OUT OF OFFICE!!""
 
GIS user can look at other ways like excel saving to database interface
instead of direct saving to dbf.


if you are the developer finding a feature rarely used and there is another
better way to replace the feature, would you bother to spend tons of time
and resource on keeping the feature working on next newer release?
 
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