What alternative solutions exist for reading and converting DBF files in PHP without relying on extensions?

The issue arises when PHP does not have the necessary extensions to read and convert DBF files. One alternative solution is to use a third-party library like PHPExcel which supports reading DBF files. By utilizing PHPExcel, you can parse the DBF file data and manipulate it as needed within your PHP application.

// Include PHPExcel library
require_once 'PHPExcel/Classes/PHPExcel/IOFactory.php';

// Load the DBF file
$inputFileName = 'example.dbf';
$objPHPExcel = PHPExcel_IOFactory::load($inputFileName);

// Get the data from the DBF file
$sheetData = $objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->toArray(null, true, true, true);

// Process and use the data as needed
foreach ($sheetData as $row) {
    // Perform operations on each row of data
}