<p>Access can open DBF (dBase) files, but instead of physically converting the data into MDB format, it has the ability to link to the DBF table itself. This way the DBF is "linked" to the MDB.</p>

<p>Is it possible to attach a DBF file in such manner using C#?</p>

<p><strong>Edit</strong>: I would like to use Jet and avoid using MS Access directly.</p>

Perhaps this code from
How to quickly copy tables from an ODBC source to MS Access within a C# project
might help:
The VB function you’ll need to put
  into MS Access is quite simple, and
  basically calls the TransferDatabase
  method by passing it a DSN (pointing
  to the source database), a source
  table name and target table name. The
  code is as follows:
```
```
Public Function Import(dsnName As String, sourceTableName As String, targetTableName As String)
‘ if the table already existsm, delete it.
   On Error GoTo CopyTable
   DoCmd.DeleteObject acTable, targetTableName
CopyTable:
   DoCmd.TransferDatabase _
   acImport, _
   "ODBC Database", _
   "ODBC;DSN=" + dsnName, _
   acTable, _
   sourceTableName, _
   targetTableName
End Function
```
```
Changing the VBA to read acLink rather than acImport should allow linking.
And then the C# code:
```
```
object accessObject = null;
try
{
   accessObject = Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Access.Application"));

   accessObject.GetType().InvokeMember(
      "OpenCurrentDatabase",
      System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Default  System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod,
      null,
      accessObject,
      new Object[] { "AccessDbase.mdb" });

   accessObject.GetType().InvokeMember(
      "Run",
      System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Default  System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod,
      null,
      accessObject,
      new Object[] { "Import", "DSN Name", "Source table name", "Target table name" });

   accessObject.GetType().InvokeMember(
      "CloseCurrentDatabase",
      System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Default  System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod,
      null,
      accessObject,
      null);

   MessageBox.Show("Copy succeeded.");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
   string message = ex.Message;
   while (ex.InnerException != null)
   {
      ex = ex.InnerException;
      message += "\r\n----\r\n" + ex.Message;
   }
   MessageBox.Show(message);
}
finally
{
   if (accessObject != null)
   {
      System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(accessObject);
      accessObject = null;
   }
}
```
```
Edit re comments
I cannot help with c#, but here is some VBScript that links a table from
one MDB to another.
```
```
strLinkFile = "C:\Docs\Link.mdb"
strAccessFile = "C:\Docs\LTD.mdb"

'Create Link... '
Set cn = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
cn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
       "Data Source=" & strAccessFile & ";" & _
       "Persist Security Info=False"

Set adoCat = CreateObject("ADOX.Catalog")
Set adoCat.ActiveConnection = cn

Set adoTbl = CreateObject("ADOX.Table")

Set adoTbl.ParentCatalog = adoCat
adoTbl.Name = "LinkTable"

adoTbl.properties("Jet OLEDB:Link Datasource") = strLinkFile
adoTbl.properties("Jet OLEDB:Link Provider String") = "MS Access"
adoTbl.properties("Jet OLEDB:Remote Table Name") = "Table1"
adoTbl.properties("Jet OLEDB:Create Link") = True

'Append the table to the tables collection '
adoCat.Tables.Append adoTbl
```
```
It is modified from:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/240222