XIV. dBase functions
These functions allow you to access records stored in dBase-format
(dbf) databases.
There is no support for indexes or memo fields. There is no
support for locking, too. Two concurrent webserver processes
modifying the same dBase file will very likely ruin your database.
Unlike SQL databases, dBase "databases" cannot change the database
definition afterwards. Once the file is created, the database
definition is fixed. There are no indexes that speed searching or
otherwise organize your data. dBase files are simple sequential
files of fixed length records. Records are appended to the end of
the file and delete records are kept until you call
dbase_pack()().
We recommend that you do not use dBase files as your production
database. Choose any real SQL server instead; MySQL or Postgres
are common choices with PHP. dBase support is here to allow you to
import and export data to and from your web database, since the
file format is commonly understood with Windows spreadsheets and
organizers. Import and export of data is about all that dBase
support is good for.
