Ability Database

File Format
Name	Ability Database
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Databases Ability Database
Extension(s)	.adb
Released	1994

Ability Database (ADB) is the native format of the Database program in the Ability Office suite, though this program also supports the Microsoft Access (MDB) format.

Ability Database is a relational database supporting SQL queries, similar to a number of other database engines. The presence of the string "Standard Jet DB" in the file headers indicates the possibility that this format is derived from the Jet format on which MS Access was also based.

Text strings appear, as in the other Ability Office programs, to be stored in 16 bit Unicode, perhaps UTF-16.

Identification

Files appear to begin with the hex bytes 00 01 00 00 53 74 61 6E 64 61 72 64 20 4A 65 74 20 44 42 00, which includes the ASCII string "Standard Jet DB".

See also

• Ability Office PhotoPaint
• Ability Write
• Ability Spreadsheet

Sample files

• TESTDB.ADB - Test database

Other links

• Wikipedia article on Ability Office
• Ability Software site