[Calc] DBF export filter uppercases field names in 6.1

Cev1 · January 21, 2019, 5:13pm

Hello all,

On version 6.1.2.1 (x64)
When I open a dbf file with lowercase field names and save it, all fields are uppercased.
This breaks my current data flow, although it seems uppercase field names are common practice.
Uppercasing all field names without having the option to optout in the dBASE filter seems a little brutal to me.

Is this a wanted effect ?
What solution would you recommend ? A custom dbf filter ?

Thanks for the help and the great job !

Cev.

erAck · January 21, 2019, 5:53pm

Calc writes dBASE III+ compatible files in which field names are upper case, can not be longer than 10 characters and not contain spaces. There is no workaround.

Cev1 · January 21, 2019, 9:15pm

Thanks for the reply !
I’ve checked on a dBASE III+ manual here and at §8.2 it says that

Field names can be up to 10 characters long and begin with a letter. Spaces are not allowed

But I don’t see a mention about uppercase. Could you point to the right reference ?

Thanks.

Cev.

erAck · January 23, 2019, 7:46pm

The original dBASE software stored only upper case field names. I don’t know if there is a normative reference or whether it’s an implicit requirement or what happens with any piece of software in the wild if not. Anyhow, it’s implemented in Calc that way.