Way to convert dbf to csv in python?

Question

I have a folder with a bunch of dbf files I would like to convert to csv. I have tried using a code to just change the extension from .dbf to .csv, and these files open fine when I use Excel, but when I open them in pandas they look like this:

                                                s\t�
0                                                NaN
1            1       176 1.58400000000e+005-3.385...

This is not what I want, and those characters don't appear in the real file.
How should I read in the dbf file correctly?

Answer 1

Looking online, there's a few options:

• https://gist.github.com/ryanhill29/f90b1c68f60d12baea81
• http://pandaproject.net/docs/importing-dbf-files.html
• https://geodacenter.asu.edu/blog/2012/01/17/dbf-files-and-p
• https://pypi.python.org/pypi/simpledbf

---

With simpledbf:

dbf = Dbf5('fake_file_name.dbf')
df = dbf.to_dataframe()

---

Tweaked from the gist:

import pysal as ps

def dbf2DF(dbfile, upper=True):
    "Read dbf file and return pandas DataFrame"
    with ps.open(dbfile) as db:  # I suspect just using open will work too
        df = pd.DataFrame({col: db.by_col(col) for col in db.header})
        if upper == True: 
           df.columns = map(str.upper, db.header) 
        return df