How do i read a dbase file and apply different decoding?

Question

I have a dbf file endcoded as 866 codepage (DOS)

Using the code below, I'm trying to read it. Problem is that strings I get are formed as if the file was in code page 1252. I've checked other questions on SO and other forums with no luck so far. Looking for ideas on hot to read it propperly.

var ConnectionString = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\PathtoFile\;Extended Properties=""dBase 5.0""";
var  dBaseConnection = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(ConnectionString );

dBaseConnection.Open();

var dBaseCommand = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM FileName",dBaseConnection);
var dBaseDataReader =  dBaseCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.SequentialAccess);


while( dBaseDataReader.Read()){

Encoding.GetEncoding(866).GetString(Encoding.GetEncoding(1252).GetBytes(dBaseDataReader.GetString(2)).Dump();  // Does not help 
}

Have you looked into using STRCONV in the query to return the value in Unicode? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/k0yb2181(v=VS.80).aspx — mlorbetske, Oct 23 '12 at 09:09
Is it truly a Dbase 5 version, or just a DBF file that you are trying to force with Jet... instead of using Microsoft Visual Foxpro OleDB provider... — DRapp, Oct 23 '12 at 15:36
Good question, DRapp, now if i only knew, how to figure it out? — Alexander Taran, Oct 23 '12 at 19:58
Byte 0 of a DBF tells you the file type. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa975386(v=vs.71).aspx — Caltor, Oct 06 '14 at 16:33

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 07 '12 at 14:06

Where is the file from? What other file extensions are in the same folder (eg FPT/CDX/IDX/NTX)? That should give us a clue as to whether it is VFP or dBase or Clipper or something else.

If it's Visual Foxpro (VFP) data then you should install the VFPOLEDB provider from http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=14839 and use one of the following connection strings taken from http://www.connectionstrings.com/visual-foxpro#vfp-ole-db-provider.

Database container (.DBC):

Provider=vfpoledb;Data Source=C:\MyDbFolder\MyDbContainer.dbc;Collating Sequence=machine;

Free table directory:

Provider=vfpoledb;Data Source=C:\MyDataDirectory\;Collating Sequence=general;

Connect to a single DBF-file:

Provider=vfpoledb;Data Source=C:\MyDataDirectory\MyTable.dbf;Collating Sequence=machine;

More info on the VFPOLEDB provider at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa975609%28v=vs.71%29.aspx

Out of interest how do you know it is encoded as codepage 866? The byte at offset 29 in Visual Foxpro DBFs stores the codepage mark. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa975386%28v=vs.71%29.aspx

All my dBAse (.dbf) files lack the LDID at 0xD1 (29 dec). The question is - how to override it in code? — TomeeNS, Aug 20 '17 at 11:15
@TomeeNS I think you should post your own question otherwise this is going to get pretty confusing. By all means post a comment here with a link to your question. — Caltor, Aug 20 '17 at 16:34

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 05 '13 at 11:44

I don't see provements that you got 1252 coded data. Your code trying to covnert from 1252 to 866 codepage failed. Thus it is not in 1252 codepage. I currently fixed the problem that driver returned non-single byte string. May be it is your problem too.

Solution:

Check the value of HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Xbase\BDE key. It must be 2. If not or the key does not exist (this was my case), create DWORD parameter and set it to 2.

More info about this key you can find here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307455/en-us

How do i read a dbase file and apply different decoding?

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