The extension .DBF belongs to the standard database files of the DBMS system dBASE. These are special database files that organize the data in the form of records and the attributes stored in an array data structure. It was used widely in the earlier times given its simplicity and ability to store structured data.

The file format is partially open compatible in the sense that along with the dBASE database management system, it also integrates seemlessly with other Xbased DBMS.The data from a .DBF file can be exported in one of the open formats like CSV files using dbfexport functionality in the dBASE system.