Shapefiles require 3 specific files: . — shape format; the feature geometry itself . — shape index format; a positional index of the feature geometry to allow seeking forwards and backwards quickly . — attribute format; columnar attributes for each shape, in dBase IV format
Shapefiles were developed by as a GIS-type format
The beginning of the .shp file contains a byte header, which is something like a table of contents.
The header contains the , and a , which enables fast searching of containment/intersection.
Geometries can be of point, , , OR types, and are set in the Data Management Tools -> Feature Class -> Create Feature Class tool.
Addionally, the geometry can store: , or measures of . In practice this is still somewhat unusual , or measure which is generally either: the length along a line or, some kind of attribute data
The combination of and Z/M data forms the different kinds of data the shapefile can store.
Technically, it is possible to include different in the same shapefile, this is also currently against the “rules”, so be careful with your wording of the bet.
In ArcGIS software, a feature is a digital map feature that represents a place or thing that has neither area nor length at a given scale, and that is treated as a object with locations.
A feature is associated with a single record in an attribute table.
A is an ordered set of vertices that consists of one or more parts. A part is a connected sequence of two or more points. Parts may be connected to and may intersect one another.
The following fields are for a PolyLine: Box - The bounding box for the PolyLine, stored in the order , , ,
The following fields are for a PolyLine: NumParts - The in the PolyLine
The following fields are for a PolyLine: Parts An array of length . Stores, for each PolyLine, the index of its in the points array indexes are numbered with respect to 0.
The following fields are for a PolyLine: Points An array of length NumPoints The points for each part in the PolyLine are stored to . The points for part 2 follow the points for part 1, and so on. The parts array holds the array index of the starting point for each part. There is no in the points array between parts.
Shapefiles (.shp) are text or binary [] and vector or raster []. They are used in Arc as de facto standard.
GeoJSON are text or binary [] and vector or raster []. Used for and .
WKT are text or binary [] and vector or raster []. Replacing .
WKT -
KML -
prj.file - format - coordinate system and projection info; a plain text file describing projection using format
The DBF file contains information
DBG - File and is a standard format for holding data.
