Trying to import data from Btrieve into SQL Server

If X$File/X$Field/X$Index show up, but nothing else does, then you may have been provided with EMPTY DDF's.  Start the Pervasive Maintenance Utility and go to Options/Create Stat Report and do a STAT on the FILE.DDF.  If you see only 3 or 4 records there, then your DDF's are indeed empty and useless to you.  (You can also do this from a command prompt with the command "BUTIL -STAT FILE.DDF" and looking at the Number of Records line.)

If your DDF's are empty, then go back to the user or developer and request correct DDF's.  With them, this task is trivial -- and you already have taken all of the steps needed.  Without them, this task is VERY non-trivial.  

Now, one more thing -- if you created a new database and did NOT already have the right DDF's in the folder, then the database engine would have created new ones for you -- probably ones that had 8-10 tables defined in it -- all X$.... tables.  You may then be able to delete this "new" set of DDF's and copy your original DDF's into the correct location.  It all depends on exactly how you created the database wand what was where.  However, the STAT report on the FILE.DDF will give you a big clue -- if it shows less than 10 records, then the DDF's are indeed empty.

FYI, there are a few more papers on accessing Pervasive databases here:
    http://www.goldstarsoftware.com/press.asp
but it looks like you already know how to do it.

Hi and Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I have no access to the developer  and the users are not IT literate (they are lawyers). Is there a way of importing these files into either access or sql? The STAT report has the following:

File Statistics for c:\btr_test\new\ddf\file.ddf

File Version = 9.50
Page Size = 1024
Page Preallocation = No
Key Only = No
Extended = No

Total Number of Records = 13
Record Length = 97  
Record Compression = No
Page Compression = No
Variable Records = No

Available Linked Duplicate Keys = 0
Balanced Key = No
Log Key = 0
System Data = No
Total Number of Keys = 2
Total Number of Segments = 2

Key         Position        Type            Null Values*               ACS
    Segment          Length           Flags              Unique Values
  0    1         1       2  Unsigned            --                13    --
  1    1         3      20  String     I M      --                13    --

Legend:
 < = Descending Order
 D = Duplicates Allowed
 I = Case Insensitive
 M = Modifiable
 R = Repeat Duplicate
 A = Any Segment (Manual)
 L = All Segments (Null)
 * = The values in this column are hexadecimal.
?? = Unknown
-- = Not Specified


Thanks.

These are not the older DDF's, but rather the brand new ones that the database engine created.  Did you say that you had old ones (the set with the 4 files)?  Try a BUTIL -STAT on that FILE.DDF and let me know how many records are in THAT copy.

Here's the exact paper which explains in more detail exactly what you are trying to do and why it is hard:
    http://www.goldstarsoftware.com/papers/AccessingBtrieveDataFromODBC.pdf
As you see in the paper, without DDF's, there is no way to access the data relationally, and thus no way to get to it from Access, either.  You'll either need to create the DDF's yourself or have someone do it for you.  Without detailed data structure documentation or source code, this is (again) a non-trivial exercise.

Hi Billbach Please see details of request below:
File Statistics for c:\btr_test\data\ddf\file.ddf

File Version = 6.00
Page Size = 512
Page Preallocation = No
Key Only = No
Extended = No

Total Number of Records = 4
Record Length = 97  
Record Compression = No
Page Compression = No
Variable Records = No

Available Linked Duplicate Keys = 0
Balanced Key = No
Log Key = 0
System Data = No
Total Number of Keys = 2
Total Number of Segments = 2

Key         Position        Type            Null Values*               ACS
    Segment          Length           Flags              Unique Values
  0    1         1       2  Unsigned            --                 4    --
  1    1         3      20  String       M      --                 4     0

Alternate Collating Sequence(ACS) List:
  0 UPPER  

Legend:
 < = Descending Order
 D = Duplicates Allowed
 I = Case Insensitive
 M = Modifiable
 R = Repeat Duplicate
 A = Any Segment (Manual)
 L = All Segments (Null)
 * = The values in this column are hexadecimal.
?? = Unknown
-- = Not Specified

As I thought -- empty.  May as well just delete them, as they are doing nothing except taking up disk space.

Hi BillBach, Thanks for all the help!

I just looked at the file dates on the DDFs and realised that FILE.DDF was overwritten when I created a database on PSQL10 (the originals are sitting on an old Novell server)

The original file BUTIL-STAT looks like:

Btrieve Maintenance Utility 10.30.017.000
Copyright (C) Pervasive Software Inc. 2009
All Rights Reserved.

File Statistics for F:\PDS\Data\DDF\FIELD.DDF

File Version = 6.00
Page Size = 512
Page Preallocation = No
Key Only = No
Extended = No

Total Number of Records = 159
Record Length = 32  
Record Compression = No
Page Compression = No
Variable Records = No

Available Linked Duplicate Keys = 0
Balanced Key = No
Log Key = 0
System Data = No
Total Number of Keys = 5
Total Number of Segments = 8

Key         Position        Type            Null Values*               ACS
    Segment          Length           Flags              Unique Values
  0    1         1       2  Unsigned            --               159    --
  1    1         3       2  Unsigned      D     --                 4    --
  2    1         5      20  String       MD     --               159     0
  3    1         3       2  Unsigned     M      --               159    --
  3    2         5      20  String       M      --               159     0
  4    1         3       2  Unsigned     MD     --               159    --
  4    2        26       2  Unsigned     MD     --               159    --
  4    3        30       1  String       MD     --               159    --

Alternate Collating Sequence(ACS) List:
  0 UPPER  

Legend:
 < = Descending Order
 D = Duplicates Allowed
 I = Case Insensitive
 M = Modifiable
 R = Repeat Duplicate
 A = Any Segment (Manual)
 L = All Segments (Null)
 * = The values in this column are hexadecimal.
?? = Unknown
-- = Not Specified

The command completed successfully.

Hi BillBach. Thanks for yor help.