Which xBase module?

parser has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello fellow Monks,

After a few hours of reading on CPAN and few few (mis)trials with various modules I am reduced to making inquiry - which is the superior module for reading DBF files?

I have come into posession of a few very large DBF files and I need to accurately read and munge the contents. I have no need to read indices nor to write to DBF files. The ability to query for field name and type is valuable as is at least rudimentary error handling.

Cheers

Comment on Which xBase module?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Which xBase module? by roboticus (Chancellor) on Mar 26, 2012 at 22:50 UTC
parser: I've not used any xBase packages, but if I were going to, I'd probably try DBD::Xbase first because I use the DBI package for all other database work. ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.	[reply]
Re^2: Which xBase module? by parser (Acolyte) on Mar 27, 2012 at 04:22 UTC
I installed DBD::XBase and gave it a try. It works much better than the previous two modules. Especially for correct interpretation of field types. I am still scratching my head around how to get a list of field types but I'll read the module source and see what is being passed back. Cheers	[reply]
Re^3: Which xBase module? by Jenda (Abbot) on Mar 27, 2012 at 06:32 UTC
See the docs of DBI instead, the table_info() and column_info() methods. I think that's what you are looking for. Jenda Enoch was right! Enjoy the last years of Rome.	[reply]
Re^4: Which xBase module? by lo_tech (Scribe) on Mar 27, 2012 at 16:23 UTC
Re^4: Which xBase module? by parser (Acolyte) on Mar 28, 2012 at 00:01 UTC
Re^2: Which xBase module? by petdance (Parson) on Mar 27, 2012 at 22:25 UTC
I endorse DBD::Xbase. I've had it in production until a year ago when we finally abandoned the legacy FoxPro database we still had to read from. DBD::Xbase also comes with a handy little program, dbfdump. xoxo, Andy	[reply]
Re^3: Which xBase module? by parser (Acolyte) on Mar 29, 2012 at 03:50 UTC
I found the nugget that is dbfdump in the XBase.pm module. It is called get_header_info and is perfect for what I am doing. Thanks to all for the great thoughts and advice! Cheers	[reply]


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