Technology
GIS
GIS, or Geographical Information System, is any computer system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, and present spatial or geographic data.
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Data glossaryShapefile
Shapefile
Data scienceData visualizationTechnology
The shapefile format is a geospatial data format. It is developed and regulated by Esri as an open specification for geographic information.
It is developed and regulated by Esri as a mostly open specification for data interoperability among Esri and other GIS software products.
The shapefile format can spatially describe vector features: points, lines, and polygons, representing, for example, water wells, rivers, and lakes.
In practice
The term "shapefile" is quite common, but the format consists of a collection of files with a common filename prefix, stored in the same directory. The three mandatory files have filename extensions .shp, .shx, and .dbf.
Related terms
Technology
API – Application Programming Interface
An API is an interface that defines how, for example, software applications can communicate with each other. APIs allow different software systems to interact and share data.
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Data science
Big Data
A collection of data so large that it cannot be stored, transmitted or processed using traditional computing techniques and requires specialized tools and methods.
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