Getting DBF data into XML without broken characters
XML is strict about text encoding. If a converter reads a DBF with the wrong code page, the XML either fills up with wrong letters or fails to parse at all. We read the code page recorded in the DBF header, check for UTF-8, and detect the code page from the text when the header is empty, so Cyrillic, Greek, Central European and Asian text arrives intact.
How to convert DBF to XML
- Upload the .dbf file at the top of the page.
- Choose XML as the output.
- Convert and download the .xml file.
The conversion runs on our servers. Our reader turns the DBF into a clean table first, and LibreOffice writes that table out as XML.
What gets cleaned up on the way
DBF stores almost everything as fixed-width text, including numbers and dates. We decode dates written like 19980314 into real dates, turn numeric fields into numbers, and map logical fields from T, F, Y and N to TRUE and FALSE. Visual FoxPro null values stay empty instead of becoming zeros, and varchar fields keep their real length. Field names are used as they are, without the type and width codes some tools add.
Check the XML against your importer first
There's no single XML layout for table data. Every system that imports XML expects its own element names and structure. Convert one file, open it, and compare it with what your importer needs before you convert a whole batch. If the target system also accepts CSV, DBF to CSV is often the simpler route because it has no structure to match.
Limits and related conversions
dBASE 7 files aren't supported yet, and files that aren't real DBF tables get a message instead of an empty XML file. For people who will read the data in a spreadsheet, DBF to XLSX is easier to work with. Every DBF option is on the DBF converter page, and the XML converter covers XML files.