Shapefile

The Shapefile format is a way to store geometry and attribute data for point, line, or polygon data. A full description can be found on the ESRI website.  To import correctly, you must have several associated files: .shp, .shx, .dbf.  You can also have others, such as .prj files, that provide additional information (e.g., about the projection).

• .shp - main file, each record is a shape and its vertices (geometry)

• .shx - index file records position and length of information each record in the main file

• .dbf - feature attributes and IDs, with one record per feature (must stay in same order as .shp and .shx)