exporting to a dbf file

[Lori]

Is it possible to export query results to a dbf file format in Access? I am
using Access 2003 and am not familiar with dbf files, but creating a dbf file
from exported Access data is a requirement for this database. I have
selected File--> Export and picked a file name and when I select a file type
- I have three dBase options. Is this what I would select for a dbf file?

Also, when I tried selecting any of the dbase option (dbase III, IV, or V),
I receive error 3191 stating I can't define a field more than once. No of my
field names are duplicates so I'm not sure what this is referring to. Any
help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[John Nurick]

Hi Lori,

There are various flavours of .dbf going back more than 20 years. dBASE
III is the lowest common denominator, so if you use that you can be
pretty sure it will be acceptable.

There are a few gotchas, however. I think the ones that matter are

1) field names in dBASE files can't be longer than (I think) 10
characters and can't contain spaces or special chcaracters. If you have
two fields whose names only differ after the 10th character, you can
expect the error message you've been getting. Work round it by creating
a query that uses short, unique field names, and export that.

2) filenames and paths must also be short. No more than 8 characters for
the file name (plus the .dbf) or any folder name in the path, no spaces,
and the whole path mustn't be more than 64 characters long. So export
them to somewhere like
C:\dBase\Exports\Myfile.dbf
not
C:\Documents and Settings\Lori\........

(There's a sneaky way round this if absolutely necessary.)

 

[Cindy Winegarden]

Hi John,

You're right about the 10 character requirement for older DBFs.

 

[John Nurick]

You're right about the 10 character requirement for older DBFs.

Thanks, Cindy.