Comparison of GIS vector file formats
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of GIS vector file format. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.
General information
Feature Types
Point | Multipoint | Line | Polyline | MultiPolyline | Polygon | Multipolygon | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GeoJSON[1] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Personal Geodatabase | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
Shapefile[2] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (as Polygon with multiple outer rings or as MultiPatch) |
- AutoCAD DXF – contour elevation plots in AutoCAD DXF format (by Autodesk)
- Cartesian coordinate system (XYZ) – simple point cloud
- Coverage – closed, hybrid vector data storage strategy. Legacy ArcGIS Workstation / ArcInfo format with reduced support in ArcGIS Desktop lineup. (by ESRI)
- File Geodatabase – geodatabase format, stored as folders in a file system (by ESRI)
- Geography Markup Language (GML) – XML based open standard for GIS data exchange (by Open Geospatial Consortium)
- Simple Features – specification for vector data storage (by Open Geospatial Consortium) that can be used in a GML container
- GeoJSON – open, lightweight format based on JSON, used by many open source GIS packages
- GeoMedia – Microsoft Access based format for spatial vector storage (by Intergraph)
- ISFC – MicroStation based CAD solution attaching vector elements to a relational Microsoft Access database (by Intergraph)
- MapInfo TAB format – format using TAB, DAT, ID and MAP files (by MapInfo Corporation)
- National Transfer Format (NTF) – National Transfer Format (mostly used by the UK Ordnance Survey)
- Personal Geodatabase – closed, integrated vector data storage strategy using Microsoft's Access MDB format (by ESRI)
- Shapefile – open, hybrid vector data format using SHP, SHX and DBF files (by ESRI)
- Spatial Data File – high-performance geodatabase format, native to MapGuide (by Autodesk)
- TIGER – Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing
- Vector Product Format – National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)'s format of vectored data for large geographic databases
References
- Butler, Howard; Daly, Martin; Doyle, Allan; Gillies, Sean; Schaub, Tim; Schmidt, Christopher (June 2008). "GeoJSON Specification". Retrieved 2014-10-27.
- ESRI (July 1998). "ESRI Shapefile technical description" (PDF): 4. Retrieved 2010-01-25. Cite journal requires
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