Difference between .BTR and .DAT

[Mighty]

We have two applications that use the Btrieve engine to store data. However, one application stores its data in .DAT files and the other stores them in .BTR. I am using Colibri.OLEDB interface to access the data through ADO and it works fine with .DAT files but seems to be having difficulty with the .BTR files.

Can someone please explain the difference between the two file types. Is there any reason why my OLEDB interface shouldn't work with both file types. Mise Le Meas,

Mighty

 

[Pervasivite]

There is no difference between the two because Btrieve does not specify nor require any particular extention. SoftCraft, Novell, and Btrieve Technologies, Inc. used the .btr extension for samples just like Pervasive uses the .mkd extention now. Lots of companies used the .dat extension instead. I would guess that the problem probably lies in the metadata which is contained in the DDF files. They are probabably pretty good for the app that has the .DAT files and they are either bad or non-existent for the app with the .BTR files. You also may have different file formats for the two sets of files and if the .BTR files are a later file version than the engine you are trying to open them with they would not be accessible. I doubt this is the case since I assume you application opens those files just fine, but it is a possiblity. You should do a -STAT on the files to find out their info though. Just run BUTIL -STAT with the file name and it will give you all the info on the file. If you need docs or info on Btrieve file formats and utilities to deal with them I would recommend the Pervasive.SQL 2000i SDK which is a Btrieve 7.82 SDK with ODBC and SQL added.

Pervasivite