Converting Microsoft Works databases.... *shudder*

[Michael B. Trausch]

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this.  Someone I
know is trying to move away from Microsoft Works, and I am trying to
look into a solution that would convert their data in a lossless fashion
to a more modern format.  The database has more than 65K rows, so
converting it to be an Excel spreadsheet, would, AFAIK, not be an option.

It would seem that MS Works can export the database as a DBF format
database, though I have not tried it.  Before I get started, I was
wondering if anyone has been through this problem in the past and used
Python to solve the problem.  Knowing nearly nothing about the DBase
family of application software, and database formats, I find myself
feeling like the information out there is, frankly, a bit overwhelming.

Would the recipe specified in the "dbf to csv" thread be useful here for
a file in DBase IV format?  It of course uses the same extension, but I
am not sure if the file semantics are at all similar.  The idea at the
end would be to probably create a database on an small SQL server (like
MySQL) and let the person access their data using ODBC on their Windows
workstation so that they can create form letters and the like.  They do
not have access to MS Office's Access product, nor do they wish to use
OOo Base (and I can't say that I blame them -- it seems to crash far too
often to be considered reliable stuff).

	-- Mike