Hi,

I have a large number of binary .NDB database files that I need to
access the contents of. Would anyone know of any utility (or
Access/Excel plugin) that can view the contents of these files or
failing details of the format?

As far as I can tell they may be created from software from Pervasive,
but I'm not 100% sure and I can't find any reference to them on there
website but I know the original software used a Pervasive MicroKernal
Development Engine.

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers

Sean

The "typical" btrieve data file starts with the two bytes "FC".
If so you are half way in luck. The current Pervasive.SQL database
engine can read files all the way back to 1.0.

However to access them through SQL is a different matter. The SQL
engine would need the SQL schema for the file. That is stored in a
separate set of ".ddf" files. If you have a valid set of them you
truly are set and all you will need to do is create a database that
points to the ddfs. If not, the database file itself does not have
any field or data type information stored in it except for any parts
of the record that may be indexed. The rest are just untyped bytes.
If you are lucky using the tools everything will be stored as strings
(not likely) and it will be easy to tell what field is what.

While you can use the tools that comes with the V8.x product to create
the DDF files if need be it is a little clunky.
There is a new tool available from
http://www.pervasive.com/developerzone/
menu on the left -> Downloads -> DDF builder.
or
http://www.pervasive.com/developerzo...ddfbuilder.asp
It only works with Pervasive.SQL V9.

I feel confident that one or more of the other regulars will chime in
with their suggestions also.

Leonard

On 23 Mar 2005 07:13:58 -0800, sean_connelly007 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com wrote:

Leonard,

Thanks for your reply. The files do start with the bytes "FC".

Unfortunately I don't have the .ddf files so will need to create these.
I have tried the DDF Builder but it doesn't work. The download pages
says it works with V8.6 but I guess from what you've said it really
needs V9 which I haven't got.

What I could do with is an older version of the DDF Builder
porgram.....

I'll keep looking.

Many thanks

Sean

Sean,

You can download BtSearch32 at www.nssdd.com to help you analyze the
structure and build the DDF files.

Gil

Gil,

I have now bought BtSearch32 but what I have found looking at the files
is that the text within them is stored as two bytes, with the second
byte always null (0x00). Have you seen this format before? Is there
anyway of getting BtSearch32 to strip out these null bytes?

I need to be able to extract the data with the minimal amount of
effort. If I had a better idea of the file format I would write a
program to do it myself. Is this file structure detailed anywhere?

Thanks

Sean

Sean,

Perhaps we can take this offline as it were. Please visit my website
and shoot me an email from there. Since Btrieve files can store any
type of data the developers of the software you are using are formating
the data and putting it into the files. As far as adding a data type
to BtSearch32 this I can do as I've added custom types in the past.
But we can discuss this outside of this group. Thanks,

Gil

Sounds like unicode to me.

As Gil mentioned the Btrieve API just does not care what data you put
in a file except to sort keys. It does support unicode key sorts. I
am not 100% certain the SQL engine supports unicode strings thgough.

I am sure the data can be exported, probably fine by BtSearch, but I
am not sure about accessing it through a ODBC connection.

Leonard

On 29 Mar 2005 03:55:12 -0800, "SeanC" <sean_connelly007 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com>
wrote: