Access vs DB3 (all)

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I’m being asked to look at an application written in DB3 (haven’t seen it yet). I’ve never worked with DB3. But I can’t help wondering why build in DB3, when you have Access?

Any comments…

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I’m with you on that one Catharine. BTW how old is DB3 anyway? Is it still supported?

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Maybe they are looking at upgrading it to Access? I would certainly suggest that – unless it turns out to be DB2 which could be the IBM product that’s more like Oracle or SQL Server.

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Embarrassing, I don’t have a clue who made DB3 or 2.

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Catherine:

DB3 PROBABLY refers to dBase III, which was developed by Ashton-Tate many years ago. It was/is an Xbase database and was followed by dBase IV, etc, etc.

Access will read dBase III files more or less successfullyy, although I’ve had to open them first in Excel, then import them into Access on occasion.

I’m sure there are a bunch more of the database “oldtimerrs” that can give you more info if you need it, but trying to do further development in dBase III would be an exercise in futility.

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Thanks, with that lead I was able to track down some current product info here. I’m still interested in what people with experience with this product have to say though!

Cheers

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I’m thinking/hoping that it won’t be that. I mean, I hope that I can look like a genius for bringing a DB forward into Access.

Cheers

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If it is dBase 3 then there is reasonable support for it in Access, but I would recreate the tables in Access rather than trying to link to them with ODBC or the ISAM driver. There are serious performance hits in doing the latter. In addition, each table for dBase is in it’s own file, as are indexes also if I recall correctly. There are also some constraints in dBase tables that don’t exist in Access. So I predict you will be the hero for at least a day. And I’m sure you can get lots of help here if you need it.

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Catherine,

If you’re lucky, it will be dBase III+. As Wendell noted, the indexes are separate files and life got more complicated in dBase 4 and later. dBase III files open nicely in Excel, although you can usually import them into Access as long as the dBase ISAMS are installed on your machine. I programmed extensively in dBase III until Access occurred, but I haven’t touched it in years.

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I should find out in a day or two – then the questions will really start!

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