Header structure

Field	Bytes	Type	Notes
Name	32	Null terminated string	This is the name of the database on the palm device. It need not match the name of the PDB file in the environment in which it is created.
File Attributes	2	Numeric*	0x0002 Read-Only 0x0004 Dirty AppInfoArea 0x0008 Backup this Database 0x0010 (16 decimal) Okay to install newer over existing copy, if present on Palm 0x0020 (32 decimal) Force the Pilot to reset after this database is installed 0x0040 (64 decimal) Dont allow copy of file to be beamed to other Palm.
Version	2	Numeric*	Defined by the application
Creation Date	4	Numeric*	Expressed as the number of seconds since januari 1,1904 (Palm OS 3.0 and newer)
Modification Date	4	Numeric*	Expressed as the number of seconds since January 1,1904 (Palm OS 3.0 and newer)
Last Backup Date	4	Numeric*	Expressed as the number of seconds since January 1,1904 (Palm OS 3.0 and newer)
Modification Number	4	Numeric*	Set to zero
AppInfoArea	4	Numeric*	The byte number in the PDB file (counting from zero) at which the AppInfoArea is located. This must be the first entry in the data portion of the PDB file. If this database does not have a AppInfoArea, set this value to zero.
SortInfoArea	4	Numeric*	The byte number in the PDB file (counting from zero) at which the SortInfoArea is located. This must be placed immediately after the AppInfoArea, if one exists, within the data portion of the PDB file. If this database does not have a SortInfoArea, set this value to zero. Do not use this
Database Type	4	String	Set this to the desired value. Generally it should match the Database type used by the corresponding application. This is 4 character long and does not have a terminating zero.
Creator ID	4	String	Set this to the desired value. Generally it should match the Creator ID used by the corresponding application. In all cases, you should always register you Creator ID before using it. This is 4 character long and does not have a terminating zero.
Unique ID Seed	4	Numeric*	This is used to generate the Unique ID number of subsequent records. This should be set to zero.
NextRecordList ID	4	Numeric*	Set this to zero. The element is used only in the in memory representation of a PDB file, but exists in the external version for consistency.
Number of Records	2	Numeric*	This contains the number of records.

Field	Bytes	Type	Notes
Record Data Offset	4	Numeric*	The byte number in the PDB file (counting from zero) at which the record is located.
Record Attributes	1	Numeric*	0x10 (16 decimal) Secret record bit 0x20 (32 decimal) Record in use (busy bit) 0x40 (64 decimal) Dirty record bit. 0x80 (128, unsigned decimal) Delete record on next HotSync The lest significant four bits are used to represent the category values.
Unique ID	3	Numeric*	Set this to zero and do not try to second-guess what PalmOS will do whit this value.

Assembling the file

Area	Description
Database Header	The complete header format, as described above (78 bytes)
Record List	Must contain at atleast one entry (Record headers)
Filler	Upon transferring a database from the Palm to the desktop environment, the PDB file will have two bytes of filler here. It does not appear to be necessary to insert these two bytes here when creating a PDB file for installation on the Palm. However, if you read a PDB file created by the backup conduit (setting the backup bit), you will find that there are two bytes of data in this location.
Data Area	It must be in this order: AppInfoArea (if present), SortInfoArea (if present), and records, sequentially. The order is important because each elements size is computed based on the location of the following element.

* Note. The processor on a Palm device is based on Motorola 68000 family and it uses big endian (most significant byte first) and Intel processors uses little endian (least significant byte first).
Record Data

The Record data is saved in a binary format and how the is assembled differs from application to application.

Here is the record data structure for a PDB file created from a database that is created with a PDAToolbox application. The PDB file created from a PDAToolbox database doesnt have any AppInfoArea and SortInfoArea and the number of fields and the order of the fields can differ from record to record.

The Record data is saved in a binary format and how the is assembled differs from application to application.

Record Data header

Field Header

Field	Bytes	Type	Notes
Field Name	4	String	Name of the field, This is 4 character long and does not have a terminating zero
Field Type	2	Numeric*	0 String 1 Boolean 2 Date, number of days since January 1 1904 3 Time, number of minutes since midnight 5 Digital Ink 6 Alarm, number of seconds since January 1 1904
Field Size	2	Numeric*	The size of the field in bytes. The size depends on the Field Type. String: Length of the text, the size is always even so if the actually length is odd an extra byte is added. Boolean: 2 bytes. Date: 4 bytes. Time 4 Bytes. Digital Ink: Size of the image plus a 16 bytes header** Alarm: 4 Bytes

Field	Bytes	Type	Notes
Width	2	Numeric*	Width in pixel of image.
Height	2	Numeric*	Height in pixel of image.
BytesPerRow	2	Numeric*	The number of bytes for each row in the image.
BitmapsFlags	2	Numeric*	1 Compressed 2 HasColorTable 4 HasTransparency 8 inderect 16 for screen This field is not used for Dinks
PixelSize	1	Numeric*	The pixel depth Currently supported pixel depths are 1, 2, 4, and 8-bit.
Version	1	Numeric*	The version of bitmap encoding used 0 Bitmap encoding PalmOS v1, 1 Bitmap encoding PalmOS v3 2 Bitmap encoding PalmOS v3.5 This must be set to 0
nextDepthOffset	2	Numeric*	Not used set to 0
transparentIndex	1	Numeric*	Not used set to 0
compressionType	1	Numeric*	Not used set to 0
reserved	8	Numeric*	Reserved set to 0

Area	Description
Record Data Header
Field Headers	Field 1 to n
Data Area	Data for field 1 to n