TAB files

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TAB files are the native file format of MapInfo Professional.

Two main versions exist:

 

The original TAB, allowing up to 2 GB files.

The extended TAB (TABx), without this limitation and allowing unicode for strings.

 

RW Net 4 reads both of these natively and can also update them natively (attribute information), but writing them from scratch requires a 3rd party library:

 

MITAB

This is an open source and free library able to write TAB files.

Find it on RouteWare website, download section.

From 4.43 we use MITAB 1.7.1.

 

EFAL

This is Preciselys free library, able to write TAB and TABx files.

Find it here: https://support.precisely.com/product-downloads/item/mapinfo-efal-sdk-download/

 

MFAL

This is Preciselys library, able to write TAB files.

Not publicly available.

 

All 3 exists in both 32 and 64-bit versions.

 

Large datasets

MITAB and MFAL are both very fast, while EFAL easily uses 10 times as much time on the same dataset.

In fact, it may be faster to write to MIF and then leave it to MapInfo Pro to import from MIF to TAB.