Data extraction from .dat file

[BluuueJammm]

I've been asked to build an ecommerce site for someone with about quite a lot of items in it. They have supplied the data on a dvd that installs a program locally. When you go in to the back end of the program to try and grab the database there is just a load of (few hundred) .dat files. Anyone point me in the right direction to extract these?

 

[BackBanana]

a .dat file isnt really a defined filetype, many apps will use .dat as a generic file extension for a custom data stream.

You'd need to take a look at the files to see if theres any recognizable headers, if looking to do it yourself manually.

There are tools that can scan a file for files stored within it and then pull them out.

You might be lucky and it's just an archive, rename to .zip and try 7zip or winrar on it.

 

[BluuueJammm]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I'd gathered it was a generic format, and I've tried extracting it with winrar with no luck. You got any tools you could recommend for this? I've searched about and tried a couple already with no joy.

 

[BackBanana]

I used to use a dos tool called mripper back in the day, not sure what's about now though, sorry

 

[Mahzkrieg]

What's the data look like when you open it in plaintext or Excel?

 

[crackp0t]

You could also try to use the unix strings command.

EDIT:

If you can PM one that isn't to big I'll try to help.

 

[emp]

What's the data look like when you open it in plaintext or Excel?

^^ THIS

Open it with notepad or another text editor and look at the structure.

::emp::

 

[LotsOfZeros]

^^ THIS

Open it with notepad or another text editor and look at the structure.

::emp::

^^ THIS AGAIN
We use .dat files for EDI transactions but all they are is a flat text file. When I open them up in Notepad++ they're just comma-delimited columns with starting and ending tags at each line:
<EDI>name, address, zip, item, price, quantity, date</EDI>

Yours may be different...