What format is shp?

shp is a file in the "Spatial Data Open" format. The full name of shp is "ESRI Shapefile". It is a spatial data open format developed by the American Environmental Systems Research Institute. It is a vector graphics format. This format file is mainly used to describe geometric objects (points, polylines and polygons) and can save geometry. The position and related properties of graphics.

#The operating environment of this article: Windows 7 system, Dell G3 computer.

ESRI Shapefile (shp), or shapefile for short, is an open format for spatial data developed by the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI). This file format has become an open standard in the geographic information software industry, which demonstrates ESRI's importance in the global geographic information system market. Shapefile is also an important exchange format, which enables data interoperability between ESRI and other companies' products.

Shapefile files are used to describe geometric objects: points, polylines and polygons. For example, Shapefiles can store the geometric positions of spatial objects such as wells, rivers, lakes, etc. In addition to geometric positions, shp files can also store attributes of these spatial objects, such as the name of a river, the temperature of a city, etc.

Shapefile is a vector graphics format that can save the position and related attributes of geometric figures. However, this format cannot store topological information of geographical data. Shapefiles were first used in the second version of ArcView GIS in the early 1990s. Shapefiles can be read by many free and commercial programs.

Shapefile is a relatively primitive vector data storage method. It can only store the position data of geometry, but cannot store the attribute data of these geometries at the same time in one file. . Therefore, the Shapefile must also come with a two-dimensional table to store the attribute information of each geometry in the Shapefile. Many geometries in shapefiles can represent complex geographical things and provide them with powerful and accurate computing capabilities.

Shapefile refers to a method of file storage. In fact, this file format is composed of multiple files. Among them, to form a Shapefile, three files are essential, they are ".shp", ".shx" and ".dbf" files. A set of files representing the same data should have the same filename prefix. For example, to store geometry and attribute data about a lake, there must be three files: lake.shp, lake.shx and lake.dbf. The suffix of the "real" Shapefile is shp. However, the data in this file alone is incomplete. The other two must be attached to form a complete set of geographic data. In addition to these three required files, there are eight optional files that can be used to enhance the expressive capabilities of spatial data. All file names must follow the MS DOS 8.3 file name standard (8 characters for the file prefix and 3 characters for the suffix, such as shapefil.shp) to facilitate compatibility with some old applications, although many new All programs can support long file names. Additionally, all files must be in the same directory.

Shapefile file composition

Shapefile file refers to a method of file storage. In fact, this file format is composed of multiple files. Among them, there are three files that are essential to form a Shapefile. They are:

• .shp - Graphic format, used to save the geometric entities of elements.

• .shx - Graphics index format, geometry position index, records the position of each geometry in the SHP file, which can speed up the efficiency of searching a geometry forward or backward.

• .dbf - Attribute data format, which stores the attribute data of each geometric shape in dBase IV data table format.

The file name prefixes of a group of files representing the same data should be the same. For example, to store geometry and attribute data about a lake, there must be three files: lake.shp, lake.shx and lake.dbf. The suffix of the "real" Shapefile is .shp. However, the data of this file alone is incomplete. The other two must be attached to form a complete set of geographical data. In addition to these three required files, there are eight optional files that can be used to enhance the expressive capabilities of spatial data.

How to open SHP files?

Shapefiles were first used in the second version of ArcView GIS in the early 1990s. Currently, many free or commercial geographic information software can read SHP files, such as:

• ArcGIS Pro (Windows)

• MapInfo ( Windows)

• IMAGINE (Windows)

• SuperMap GIS (Multi-platform)

• QGIS ( Multi-platform)

• gvSIG (Windows and Linux)

• uDig (Multi-platform)

• GDAL (multi-platform)

The above is the detailed content of What format is shp?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!