Function Reference: dbfread

Function File: [data, datinfo] = dbfread (fname) ¶

Function File: [data, datinfo] = dbfread (fname, recs) ¶

Function File: [data, datinfo] = dbfread (fname, recs, cols) ¶

Function File: [data, datinfo] = dbfread (fname, recs, cols, re) ¶

Read contents of a dbase (dbf) file, provisionally dbase III+, IV or V.

fname should be the name of a valid dbase file; the file extension isn’t required.
recs can be an integer or logical array containing record numbers or record indicators for those records that need to be returned. If omitted, all records are read. Indices supplied in recs can be specified in any order, but the returned data are sorted in order of records in the file.
cols can be a logical, integer, cellstr or character array indicating from which file columns the data should be returned. If a numeric array is supplied, it is considered to be like a logical array if the maximum entry value equals 1. Character arrays should have column names stacked in the vertical (first) dimension. cols entries can be supplied in any order, yet the returned data column order matches that of the columns order in the dbase file. Requested column names that don’t exist in the .dbf file are simply ignored. For dbase files containing multiple columns with the same name, specify a numeric or logical array to select columns to be returned. If cols is omitted or empty, data from all file columns are returned.
If a value of 1 or true is entered for re, dbfread also tries to return data from erased records. No guarantee can be given for these data to be correct or consistent! If omitted, erased records are skipped. The default value of re is false.
Return value data is a N+1 x M cellstr array where the uppermost row contains the column names and the rest of the rows comprise the record data.
Optional return argument datinfo is a struct array containing various information of the dbase file and record build-up.

Arguments recs and cols need not be as long as the number of records and columns in the file, resp.; dbfread will stop reading data if any of recs or cols (if supplied) is exhausted.

Sometimes dbase files contain records indicated as being erased. The data in such records is silently skipped, unless the re flag is set and/or recs is supplied and erased records happen to be present in the requested record numbers.

Examples:

  A = dbfread ("file.dbf");
  (returns all data in file.dbf in array A)

  [A, B] = dbfread ("file.dbf", [], ["colB"; "colF"]);
  (returns all data in columns named "colB" and "colF" from
   file.dbf in array A and information on the database
   build-up in struct B)

  A = dbfread ("file.dbf", [0 1 0 0 1 0 0]);
       -or-
  A = dbfread ("file.dbf", [2 5]);
  (returns data from record numbers 2 and 5 in
   file.dbf in array A)

  A = dbfread ("file", [0 1 0 0 1 0]);
  (returns data from record numbers 2 and 5 in
   file.dbf in array A)

  [~, B] = dbfread ("file.dbf", 0);
  (to returns info on column names and number of
   records, plus more info)

  [A] = dbfread ("file", [], {"Header1", "Col5"});
  (returns data from columns with names (headers)
   Header1 and Col5, resp.)

See also: xlsread.

Package: io

Navigation