Other than that, there are requirements to export data from a Java application to a spreadshet program like GNumeric, Excel or Lotus 123. A DBF file would be more appropriate in such situations rather than a CSV or an HTML file because a DBF file can carry field type information. More over, XBase format is like an Open-standard; it is understood by almost all spreadsheet programms.
tar xvfz javadbf-x.x.x-tar.gz cd javadbf-x.x.xIn this folder you will find javadbf.jar which contains the library. Include this jar file in your $CLASSPATH variable. You are ready to go.
JavaDBF comes in the package com.linuxense.javadbf. Import that package in your Java code. Following examples will familiarise you with its APIs.
| XBase Type | XBase Symbol | Java Type used in JavaDBF |
|---|---|---|
| Character | C | java.lang.String |
| Numeric | N | java.lang.Double |
| Double | F | lava.lang.Double |
| Logical | L | java.lang.Boolean |
| Date | D | java.util.Date |
DBFReader class. Copy/paste this listing and compile it. Keep a .dbf file handy to pass to this program as its argument.
import java.io.*;
import com.linuxense.javadbf.*;
public class JavaDBFReaderTest {
public static void main( String args[]) {
try {
// create a DBFReader object
//
InputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream( args[ 0]); // take dbf file as program argument
DBFReader reader = new DBFReader( inputStream);
// get the field count if you want for some reasons like the following
//
int numberOfFields = reader.getFieldCount();
// use this count to fetch all field information
// if required
//
for( int i=0; i<numberOfFields; i++) {
DBFField field = reader.getField( i);
// do something with it if you want
// refer the JavaDoc API reference for more details
//
System.out.println( field.getName());
}
// Now, lets us start reading the rows
//
Object []rowObjects;
while( (rowObjects = reader.nextRecord()) != null) {
for( int i=0; i<rowObjects.length; i++) {
System.out.println( rowObjects[i]);
}
}
// By now, we have itereated through all of the rows
inputStream.close();
}
catch( DBFException e) {
System.out.println( e.getMessage());
}
catch( IOException e) {
System.out.println( e.getMessage());
}
}
}
DBFReader is the DBFWriter.While creating a .dbf data file you will have to deal with two aspects: 1. define the fields and 2. populate data. As mentioned above a dbf field is represented by the class DBFField. First, let us familiarise this class.
DBFField class:
DBFField field = new DBFField(); field.setFieldName( "emp_name"); // give a name to the field field.setDataType( DBFField.FIELD_TYPE_C); // and set its type field.setFieldLength( 25); // and length of the field
DBFField Object ready to use. We have to create as many DBFField Objects as we want to be in the .dbf file. The DBFWriter class accept DBFField in an array. Now, let's move on to the next step of populating data.
DBFWriter Object.DBFWriter is used for creating a .dbf file. First lets create a DBFWriter object by calling its constructor and then set the fields created (as explained above) by calling the setFields method.
DBFWriter writer = new DBFWriter(); writer.setFields( fields); // fields is a non-empty array of DBFField objects
Now, the DBFWriter Object is ready to be populated.
The method for adding data to the DBFWriter is addRecord and it takes an Object array as its argument. This Object array is supposed contain values for the fields added with one-to-one correspondence with the fields set.
Following is a complete program explaining all the steps described above:
import com.linuxense.javadbf.*;
import java.io.*;
public class DBFWriterTest {
public static void main( String args[])
throws DBFException, IOException {
// let us create field definitions first
// we will go for 3 fields
//
DBFField fields[] = new DBFField[ 3];
fields[0] = new DBFField();
fields[0].setFieldName( "emp_code");
fields[0].setDataType( DBFField.FIELD_TYPE_C);
fields[0].setFieldLength( 10);
fields[1] = new DBFField();
fields[1].setFieldName( "emp_name");
fields[1].setDataType( DBFField.FIELD_TYPE_C);
fields[1].setFieldLength( 20);
fields[2] = new DBFField();
fields[2].setFieldName( "salary");
fields[2].setDataType( DBFField.FIELD_TYPE_N);
fields[2].setFieldLength( 12);
fields[2].setDecimalCount( 2);
DBFWriter writer = new DBFWriter();
writer.setFields( fields);
// now populate DBFWriter
//
Object rowData[] = new Object[3];
rowData[0] = "1000";
rowData[0] = "John";
rowData[0] = new Double( 5000.00);
writer.addRecord( rowData);
rowData = new Object[3];
rowData[0] = "1001";
rowData[1] = "Lalit";
rowData[2] = new Double( 3400.00);
writer.addRecord( rowData);
rowData = new Object[3];
rowData[0] = "1002";
rowData[1] = "Rohit";
rowData[2] = new Double( 7350.00);
writer.addRecord( rowData);
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream( args[0]);
writer.write( fos);
fos.close();
}
}
Keep in mind that till the write method is called, all the added data will be kept in memory. So, if you are planning to write huge amount of data make sure that it will be safely held in memory till it is written to disk and the DBFWriter object is garbage-collected. Read the ``Sync Mode'' section to know how JavaDBF to use a special feature of JavaDBF to overcome this.
This is useful when JavaDBF is used to create a DBF with very large number of records. In this mode, instead of keeping records in memory for writing them once for all, records are written to file as addRecord() is called. Here is how to write in Sync Mode:
Create DBFWriter instance by passing a File object which represents a new/non-existent or empty file. And you are done! But, as in the normal mode, remember to call write() when have added all the records. This will help JavaDBF to write the meta data with correct values. Here is a sample code:
import com.linuxense.javadbf.*;
import java.io.*;
public class DBFWriterTest {
public static void main( String args[])
throws DBFException, IOException {
// ...
DBFWriter writer = new DBFWriter( new File( "/path/to/a/new/file")); /* this DBFWriter object is now in Syc Mode */
// ...
}
}
From version 0.4.0 onwards JavaDBF supports appending of records to an existing DBF file. Use the same constructor used in Sync Mode to achieve this. But here the File object passed to the construction should represent the DBF file to which records are to be appended.
It is illegal to call setFields in DBFWriter object created for appending. Here also it is required to call the write() method after adding all the records.