Shapefile

Esri shapefiles are a simple, non-topological format for storing the geometric location and attribute information of geographic features. A shapefile is one of the spatial data formats that you can work with in ArcGIS.

The shapefile format defines the geometry and attributes of geographically referenced features in as many as five files with specific file extensions that should be stored in the same project workspace. The file extensions are as follows:

.shp: The file that stores the feature geometry.

.shx: The file that stores the index of the feature geometry.

.dbf: The dBASE file that stores the attribute information of features. When a shapefile is added as a theme to a view, this file is displayed as a feature table.

.sbn and .sbx: The files that store the spatial index of the features. These two files only exist if you perform theme-on-theme selection, spatial joins or create an index on a theme's SHAPE field.

.prj: The file that stores the projection information.

List of layers

LayerCountryDescription

county_region (inc GLAs)

E

Polygon

county_electoral_division_region

E

Polygon

district_borough_unitary_region

E, S, W

Polygon

district_borough_unitary_ward_region

E, S

Polygon

english_region_region

E

Polygon

greater_london_const_region

E

Polygon

high_water_polyline

E, S, W

Polyline

parish_region

E, S, W

Polygon

unitary_electoral_division_region

E, W

Polygon

westminster_const_region

E, S, W

Polygon

scotland_and_wales_const_region

S, W

Polygon

scotland_and_wales_region

S, W

Polygon

polling_districts_england_region

E

Polygon

Boundary_line_historic_counties_region

E, S, W

Polygon

community_ward_region

W

Polygon

Boundary_line_ceremonial_counties_region

E, S, W

Polygon

historic_european_region_region

E, S, W

Polygon

country_region

E, S, W

Polygon

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