ABOUT SHAPEFILES

SHAPEFILES
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.

airports.shp: Locations of airports in Puerto Rico (Geographic coordinate system, Clarke 1866 spheroid)

drain.shp: Drainage network (Geographic coordinate system, Clarke 1866 spheroid)

hynet.shp: Hydrography network (Geographic coordinate system, Clarke 1866 spheroid)

polit.shp: Political boundaries (Geographic coordinate system, Clarke 1866 spheroid)

roads.shp: Roads (Geographic coordinate system, Clarke 1866 spheroid)

rails.shp: Railroads (Geographic coordinate system, Clarke 1866 spheroid)

prgeol.shp: Geologic interpretation of the SLAR image (Geographic coordinate system)

prline.shp:: Lineament interpretation of the SLAR image (Geographic coordinate system)

NECESSARY FILES
*.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.

OTHER FILES
*.sbn and .sbx - the files that store the spatial index of the features. These two files may not exist until you perform theme on theme selection, spatial join, or create an index on a theme's Shape field. If you have write access to the source data directory, the index files will be persistent and remain after your ArcView session is complete. If you do not have write access to the source data directory, they will be removed when you close the project or exit ArcView.

*.ain and .aih - the files that store the attribute index of the active fields in a table or a theme's attribute table. These two files may not exist until you perform Link on the tables. If you have write access to the source data directory, the index files will be persistent and remain after your ArcView session is complete. If you do not have write access to the source data directory, they will be removed when you close the project or exit ArcView.