Shapefiles are simple storage formats that have been used in ArcMap since the 1990s when Esri created ArcView (the early version of ArcMap 10.3). Takes up more storage space on your computer than a geodatabase. Do not support names in fields longer than 10 characters. Cannot store date and time in the same field.
Feature collections. Items such as CSV files, shapefiles, and map notes can be added to a map as feature collections. A feature collection is a type of feature layer. Any feature collection you add can be saved as part of the map.
In the geodatabase, feature classes can be standalone or they can be organized into larger units called feature datasets. A feature dataset stores feature classes that have the same coordinate system and the same spatial extent, meaning they occupy the same geographic area.
A shapefile is an Esri vector data storage format for storing the location, shape, and attributes of geographic features. Shapefiles often contain large features with a lot of associated data and historically have been used in GIS desktop applications such as ArcMap.
via ArcCatalog
- In the Catalog pane, find the shapefile you'd like to convert into a geodatabase feature class.
- Navigate to Export>To Geodatabase (single)….
- This opens the Feature Class to Feature Class tool.
- Set Output Location by clicking the browse button at the field's end.
In ArcGIS, feature classes are homogeneous collections of features with a common spatial representation and set of attributes stored in a database table, for example, a line feature class for representing road centerlines.
The shapefile format stores the data as primitive geometric shapes like points, lines, and polygons. These shapes, together with data attributes that are linked to each shape, create the representation of the geographic data.
KML and Shapfiles could contain the exact same data, however KML is much more suited to displaying time based track information, whereas shapefiles are more suited to displaying Geometries, like boundaries, areas, roads, etc.
A shapefile actually consists of at least three binary files, and you must keep all three files together. The SHP file, with the coordinates. These are stored in binary format, but can be displayed in human readable text. The SHP file also has a header for the entire layer, and a header for each record.
The Shapefile is the most common format in GIS. It's a vector format that can be read by almost all GIS systems.
Creating a new shapefile
- Select a folder or folder connection in the Catalog tree.
- Click the File menu, point to New, then click Shapefile.
- Click in the Name text box and type a name for the new shapefile.
- Click the Feature Type drop-down arrow and click the type of geometry the shapefile will contain.
Developed by Esri, shapefiles can be directly read by a number of GIS software programs such as ArcGIS and QGIS.
How to create a shapefile from XY coordinates using Excel and ArcMap:
- Open ArcMap.
- Open the Catalog Pane* and navigate to your file (can be a .
- Right click on your file and hover over “Create Feature Classâ€, then select “From XY Table…â€
A primary advantage of shapefiles is that this simple file structure draws faster than a coverage does. This may be why the shapefile data structure was developed for ArcView GIS, a software program that was originally designed for data viewing rather than analysis.
In comparison to a shapefile, a layer file is a just a link or reference to actual data, such as a shapefile, feature class, etc. It is not actual data because it does not store the data's attributes or geometry.
- The layer is not visible. You need to turn on the layer in the table of contents. Right-click the layer in the table of contents and click Zoom To Make Visible to bring the layer into view. You can update or remove the scale range on the General tab of the Layer Properties dialog box.
It is worth noting that shapefiles have no relation to databases, rather when shapefile features are added to a database they are transformed into database rows, which have no direct relationship to the source feature.
So to put in a few words, a Layer File holds path, symbology and layer settings (but no data). Layer Package holds the layer settings plus the data in one package.
Layer Files (. lyr) are a means of preserving a defined symbology for a data set (or sets). These files are simply a pointer to the original data, with instructions for how to display the data in ArcMap. A layer file will also preserve Definition Queries and/or Selection Layers.
In ArcGIS, layers are collections of geographic data. Layers reference a data source, and if ArcGIS Pro interprets data as spatial, the data's properties and attributes specify how the layer draws on a map, scene, or layout. Data gathered in a layer is represented with points, lines, shapes (polygons), or surfaces.
Summary. Creates an output layer file (. lyrx) from a map layer. The layer file stores many properties of the input layer such as symbology, labeling, and custom pop-ups. Layer files saved from ArcGIS Pro cannot be used in ArcMap.
Shapefile Files
- Main File (. SHP) . shp is a mandatory Esri file that gives features their geometry.
- Index File (. SHX) .
- Projection File (. PRJ) .
- Extensible Markup Language File (. XML) .
- Spatial Index File (. SBN) .
- Spatial Index File (. SBX) .
- Code Page File (. CPG) .
A shapefile is a simple, nontopological format for storing the geometric location and attribute information of geographic features. Geographic features in a shapefile can be represented by points, lines, or polygons (areas). You can also see the dBASE file (that may be associated with a shapefile).
For a similar number of vector features with attributes, GeoJSON has almost double the file size compared to shapefile in most cases. GeoJSONs have no spatial indexing. So, it's tough to handle when dealing with a large number of features.
A Shapefile (SHP) is a digital vector storage format for storing geometric location and associated attribute information. Shapefiles (SHP) are simple because they store the primitive geometric data types of points, lines, and polygons. They are of limited use without any attributes to specify what they represent.
