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.
| Layer | Country | Description |
|---|---|---|
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