DBF to XLSX — attributes a spreadsheet has no equivalent for
A mapping tool asks for Excel and the attribute table behind the layer is dBASE. The transfer moves field names and values into cells, and leaves the schema behind: a workbook has no place to record that a field was declared numeric, fixed-width, or indexed.
Cell formatting, colours, column widths and merged ranges are dropped; only stored values survive.
Processed on your device. Files aren’t sent anywhere.
Attributes a spreadsheet has no equivalent for
The definition block describes storage. A grid describes positions. The two do not overlap.
| dBASE attribute | Outcome | In the workbook |
|---|---|---|
| Field name | crosses | header cell |
| Record value | changed | cell text |
| Declared type | dropped | no type declaration exists |
| Declared width | dropped | no fixed-width cells |
| Index metadata | dropped | no index in a sheet |
| Deleted records | dropped | not exported |
Field types become cell values
A date-typed field arrives as the characters stored in the record, not as a spreadsheet date. A numeric field arrives as text. The type information lived in the header, and the header is not part of the transfer.
Read as bytes, not as text
The file is binary, so the reader parses the structure rather than decoding the whole file as characters.
Field names belong to the source schema, even when they look abbreviated or inconvenient in a worksheet. Keep a field-name mapping with the exported workbook if a later process expects the old names. Renaming a column for readability can break that handoff. Before changing anything, identify a few source records and confirm their values under the corresponding worksheet columns.
- Records are fixed-length and read by field position.
- Character fields keep the padding their declared width imposed.
- Legacy files were written under a single-byte codepage, so accented values can arrive changed.
- Values are written as UTF-8 text in the workbook.
Questions
Does the field type survive?
Why is a date not a spreadsheet date?
Will the join key still work?
How many sheets does the workbook get?
One sheet named after the file
Sheet mode decides how many sheets the workbook has: First sheet writes one, All sheets writes every book found in the file. Sheet names are cleaned of characters a spreadsheet cannot use and shortened to the format's limit. The downloaded workbook keeps the source file's name.
Checking the transferred table
The attribute table is usually joined to geometry by a key, so a lost column breaks the join.
- Convert the .dbf file and download the workbook.
- Compare the header cells with the fields in the definition block.
- Trim padding left by fixed-width character fields.
- Confirm the join key column is present and unchanged.
- Convert numeric columns to numbers before calculating.