If you are using PHP < 5, you can use this function to retrieve dbf header
<?
function get_dbf_header($dbfname) {
$fdbf = fopen($dbfname,'r');
$dbfhdrarr = array();
$buff32 = array();
$i = 1;
$goon = true;
while ($goon) {
if (!feof($fdbf)) {
$buff32 = fread($fdbf,32);
if ($i > 1) {
if (substr($buff32,0,1) == chr(13)) {
$goon = false;
} else {
$pos = strpos(substr($buff32,0,10),chr(0));
$pos = ($pos == 0?10:$pos);
$fieldname = substr($buff32,0,$pos);
$fieldtype = substr($buff32,11,1);
$fieldlen = ord(substr($buff32,16,1));
$fielddec = ord(substr($buff32,17,1));
array_push($dbfhdrarr, array($fieldname,$fieldtype,$fieldlen,$fielddec));
}
}
$i++;
} else {
$goon = false;
}
}
fclose($fdbf);
return($dbfhdrarr);
}
$arr = get_dbf_header('/data/file.dbf');
print_r($arr);
?>