Converting TAB to MIF / MIF to TAB

Question

How I can export (import) data from TAB format to MIF and vice versa?

Answer 1

If you're using MapInfo it's pretty simple:

• Open your TAB file by clicking File->Open or import a MIF by clicking Table->Import.
• Click Table->Export.
• Choose your desired file type.
• Save file.

If you're not using MapInfo then you might want to check out ogr2ogr.

Answer 2

If you would like to use an Open Source Tool you could use GDAL/OGR: http://www.gdal.org/ogr/drv_mitab.html

To convert from one ogr-supported (MIF, TAB, SHAPE, PostGIS, GML, ...) format to another you could for example do the following:

ogr2ogr -f "MapInfo File" dst_datasource -dsco FORMAT=MIF src_datasource

This would convert any ogr-file in the folder 'src_datasource' to a MIF-File in the folder 'dst_datasource'. Without the switch "-dsco FORMAT=MIF" you will get TAB-Format. Assume you would like to convert Esri Shapefiles to TAB:

ogr2ogr -f "ESRI Shapefile" dst_datasource  src_datasource