Convert .csv file into .dbf using Python?

Question

How can I convert a .csv file into .dbf file using a python script? I found this piece of code online but I'm not certain how reliable it is. Are there any modules out there that have this functionality?

Answer 1

Using the dbf package you can get a basic csv file with code similar to this:

import dbf
some_table = dbf.from_csv(csvfile='/path/to/file.csv', to_disk=True)

This will create table with the same name and either Character or Memo fields and field names of f0, f1, f2, etc.

For a different filename use the filenameparameter, and if you know your field names you can also use the field_names parameter.

some_table = dbf.from_csv(csvfile='data.csv', filename='mytable',
        field_names='name age birth'.split())

Rather basic documentation is available here.

Disclosure: I am the author of this package.

Answer 2

You won't find anything on the net that reads a CSV file and writes a DBF file such that you can just invoke it and supply 2 file-paths. For each DBF field you need to specify the type, size, and (if relevant) number of decimal places.

Some questions:

What software is going to consume the output DBF file?

There is no such thing as "the" (one and only) DBF file format. Do you need dBase III ? dBase 4? 7? Visual FoxPro? etc?

What is the maximum length of text field that you need to write? Do you have non-ASCII text?

Which version of Python?

If your requirements are minimal (dBase III format, no non-ASCII text, text <= 254 bytes long, Python 2.X), then the cookbook recipe that you quoted should do the job.