Help

Saving, importing, and exporting data
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 532
• Text, number, date, and time field types convert from the DBF file.
• FileMaker Pro imports dBASE memo field data if the memo file (<filename>.dbt) is in the
same folder as the DBF file (<filename>.dbf).
Exporting DBF files
• To export a DBF file from FileMaker Pro and import it into another application, your
database must meet DBF criteria:
• only ten characters per field name (spaces are converted to underscores, letters are
converted to all uppercase)
• no duplicate field names
• a maximum of 128 fields
• a maximum of 254 characters per field
• a maximum of 4000 bytes per record
• Only the first value in a repeating field is exported. See Exporting repeating field data to
export all values.
• You cannot select Apply current layout’s data formatting to exported data when you
export using this format.
FileMaker Pro format
You can import from and export to files in FileMaker Pro format.
Importing from a FileMaker Pro file
• When you import data from another FileMaker Pro file, you can import data from one table
in the
source file into one table in the target file.
• If the source FileMaker Pro file contains multiple tables, you can only import data from a
single table at a time. During the import process, choose which table in the file that you want
to import. Repeat the import process for each table that you want to import.
• To import related data, import data directly from the related table.
• To import only a portion of the records in a FileMaker Pro file, open the file and perform a
find so that the
found set in the current window contains only the records you want to import.
(See Finding records.) FileMaker Pro determines the found set to import from the
foreground window in the file. If you import records from a closed file or an open file that is
not displaying any windows, FileMaker
Pro imports all the records, regardless of any found
set.
• To import a FileMaker Pro file created with a previous version, convert the file to the current
format first. See
Converting files from FileMaker Pro 11 and earlier.
Exporting to a FileMaker Pro file
• When you export data to a FileMaker Pro file, a new FileMaker Pro file is created containing
the data you export.
• You can export records from a single table at a time.
• If there are tables related to the source table that you’re exporting, you can also export fields
from those related tables. However, the data you export creates only a single table in the
exported file.