help with turbo C database

[sagreen]

I am reviewing an old application for my client. This application is some kind of a computerized catalog and the there is one big .CDB file (around 450Mb) which contain all the data.
I looked into http://filext.com/file-extension/CDB and i belive that the right one for my case is the last one - turbo c Database.
Now, to my problem - I have no idea how to access the data on the file. my dream is to convert the data from this file to tables or to a delimited test file.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mbbrutman]

It looks like you are referring to The Turbo C Database, a book put out by Peter Norton and some others in 1987. Presumably the book describes a database program written in Borland Turbo C, and might have included a diskette with the program.

Your best bet is to find a copy of that program, or the book with the disk intact and readable. If not you can probably get a good programmer to reverse engineer the file format (probably using the book without a diskette), and at least be able to get the raw data from the file.

 

[carlsson]

I find it unlikely that an example database program written in 1987 would be used in production environment still today, and have a file size as large as 450 MB. Another explanation is that CDB means Compact Database and origins from Microsoft Access for the Pocket PC platform. If that would be the case, unfortunately this forum won't be within the scope of your question.

Do your client know what software they have used, what the file contains?

 

[Trixter]

I am reviewing an old application for my client. This application is some kind of a computerized catalog and the there is one big .CDB file (around 450Mb) which contain all the data.
I looked into http://filext.com/file-extension/CDB and i belive that the right one for my case is the last one - turbo c Database.
Now, to my problem - I have no idea how to access the data on the file. my dream is to convert the data from this file to tables or to a delimited test file.
Any help would be appreciated.

CDB might not mean what you think it means. It could be just an arbitrary extension chosen by the programmer, maybe to mean Catalog DataBase or something.

A hex dump of the first 128 bytes or so of the file would be helpful in determining what the file format is, if it's any kind of standard...