I have an 85MB MDK file that I would like to convert to csv. After
figuring out what an MDK file is and reading Bill's paper on pulling
data from these files, I went back and asked for the ddf files and
have them now. I got the file from a secondary source and making a
request to the original source for another format would require a
bunch of government bureaucracy that I would like to avoid! So now
what?

I am not a developer or programmer, so is there some cheap (say free)
way for me to convert this file? I don't want to spend money on a
one-time conversion.

Thanks for any guidance anyone can provide.

Lori L. Laird
reply to lllaird at relia dot net

An easy way (avoiding setting up ODBC etc) would be to use shareware program
BDBD32.exe, available at the following link (bdbd32.zip)
http://ringtail.its.monash.edu.au/pub/pc/win95/misc/

Extract to the same directory as the data file and provided you have some
version of Pervasive running you should be able to open the file to view
(File, Open, Table) and then export to CSV (Dataset, EXPORT) deselect any
fields you do not need and set your field deliliter to comma, String quoted
and add fieldnames. Choose a filename to export to then hit GO.


"Lori" <lllaird2004 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Or, if you want to put the Pervasive.SQL V8 database engine on a
workstation, you can get the trial 30-day download from
www.pervasive.com. Once installed, start the PCC and create a new
database -- pointing at your DDF's & data files (which should be in the
same directory, for easiest setup). Then, you should be able to run the
"ExportWizard" to quickly extract the data from each table.

Of course, if you really have DDF's and a database file that small, and
if you don't want to mess with it yourself, we could effect the
conversion for you for a small fee -- probably be about $50 if everything
is correct...
Goldstar Software Inc.
Building on Btrieve(R) for the Future(SM)
Bill Bach
BillBach (AT) goldstarsoftware (DOT) com
http://www.goldstarsoftware.com
*** Pervasive.SQL Service & Support Classes ***
Chicago: June, 2004: See our web site for details!


Lori wrote:

Bill Bach <bbach (AT) cncdsl (DOT) com> wrote

Bill,

It wouldn't recognize the table, but I was able to use the maintenance
utility to pull the records. Thanks for sending me in the right
direction!