DBFCREATE(1)

🌸 DBFCREATE(1) — the shplib girlies know 💅

okay bestie, sit down, we're learning dbfcreate from the shplib manual and honestly? it's giving "quiet little tool that does exactly one thing and does it flawlessly." no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

dbfcreate — create an empty xBase DBF file 🦋

like, a whole DBF file. from nothing. empty. squeaky clean. iconic behavior fr fr.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

dbfcreate xbase_file [[-s field_name width] | [-n field_name width decimals],...]

that's the whole vibe. one file, then as many column recipes as your heart desires. 💖

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

So like, dbfcreate creates an empty DBF file called xbase_file, and the columns inside it are described by all the -s and -n options that follow it. that's it. that's the whole job. no drama, no extra steps, just a fresh little file with the structure you asked for. ✨

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• xbase_file — the name of the xBase file you wanna create. bestie you do NOT need to add the extension, it handles that. 💁‍♀️
• -s field_name width — makes a string field called field_name with a size of width. cute, textual, stringy. 🎀
• -n field_name width decimals — makes a numeric field called field_name, with a width of width and with decimal places sized by decimals. numbers girlies rise 🔥

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🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

dbfcreate testbase -s NAME 20, -n AREA 9 3, -n VALUE 9 2

this will create a file named testbase.dbf with 3 fields: NAME (string (20)), AREA (float (9,3)) and VALUE (float (9,2)) — and just like that you have a whole little database structure, no notes, ate. 👑

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⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

vibe check time, here's what the numbers mean when it bounces:

• 0 — Successful program execution. slay, it worked, we love to see it. 💖
• 1 — Missing xbase_file argument. bestie you forgot the file. 😭
• 2 — Failed to create the file xbase_file for writing. it couldn't write. 💀
• 3 — Missing field_name, width, or decimals argument for a -s or -n option. incomplete field recipe, we don't do that here. 🙈
• 4 — Failed to add a column given by a -s or -n option. the column said no. 🌸

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🧚 DIAGNOSTICS 🧚

the following diagnostics may be issued on stdout — so yeah, these messages can pop up and just stare at you:

DBFCreate(xbase_file) failed.

DBFAddField(field_name,FTString,width,0) failed.

DBFAddField(field_name,FTDouble,width,decimals) failed.

Argument incomplete, or unrecognised: arg

not mean, just honest. 🫶

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

dbfcreate is part of shapelib, maintained by Frank Warmerdam. This guide was created by Eduardo Patoo Kanegae and converted to manpage by Johan Van de Wauw. It was further enhanced with the man page written by Joonas Pihlaja (jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi). shoutout to the whole crew honestly, legends only. 👑

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

the whole friend group, go say hi:

dbfadd(1), dbfcat(1), dbfdump(1), dbfinfo(1), shpadd(1), shpcat(1), shpcentrd(1), shpcreate(1), shpdump(1), shpdxf(1), shpfix(1), shpinfo(1), shpproj(1), shprewind(1), shptest(1)

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and that's the whole page bestie — straight from shplib, dated March 2026, signed off as DBFCREATE(1). go forth and create empty files with impeccable structure. periodt. ✨💖🦋