Overall structure
The AE DB file format consists of many records. Each record occupies a single line in the transport case file. The record type is indicated by the first character of the line. There are seven different record types. Lines beginning with a semicolon (;) are comments, and are ignored.
Record types of each file format
| Record type | Description | Initial data | Transport case |
|---|
| V | File & version information | ✔ | ✔ |
| T | Table name | ✔ | ✔ |
| C | Table column definition | ✔ | ✔ |
| F | Table data | ✔ | ✔ |
| R | End of group of data fields | ✔ | ✔ |
| O | Folder path | ✘ | ✔ |
| S | End of file | ✘ | ✔ |
In the initial data file format table descriptions and table content appear together. The set of records defining the data for that table appear immediately after the records describing the structure of the table. In the the transport case file format, table descriptions appear at the top of the file, and table content at the bottom. T records
T records indicate the table to which a subsequent group of records pertains.
Before: V, C, O (transport case only), R
After: C, F (transport case only)
C records
C records describe the columns in a particular table.
Before: T, C
After: C, F (initial data only), T
F records
F records contain the data for each field in a particular table.
Before: C, (initial data only), T (transport case only), F
After: F, R
R records
A single R record terminates a group of F records.
Before: F
After: T, F, O (transport case only), S (transport case only)
O records (transport case only)
O records encode folder paths of objects.
0 : <No Folder> 1 : Home folder>1 : Link(s)
The S record (transport case only)
The transport case file is terminated by a single S record.