jps services
  • Home Page
  • GIS Training Courses
    • QGIS Training Courses
    • ArcGIS Training Courses
    • MapInfo Pro Training Courses >
      • MapBasic Training Course
  • About
  • Blog

Using various file formats within your GIS

19/6/2014

0 Comments

 
There are many different formats available for use within the main GIS desktop software packages such as QGIS, MapInfo and ArcGIS. Some formats have been around for a long time such as shape files (.shp) from ESRI and tab files (.tab) from MapInfo. The ability to be able to work with these common formats is essential for many software GIS users as these system formats used by ArcGIS and MapInfo have significant user bases in both commercial and public organisations. So the ability to be able send and receive data from these two GIS software packages is seen as a 'must have' for any competing solution such as open source systems like QGIS.
Some data however does not fall into the categories mentioned above. For instance, you may have data from a database or a spreadsheet which you would like to incorporate into your map. With database formats you will often come across SQL based systems from Oracle or Microsoft. These databases, unlike data from spreadsheets, contain relational based tables that are linked through common fields. This linking facility gives them their relational database capability. Many GIS systems can now link directly to this type of database. Some relational databases also support geometry fields. Some powerful relational databases such as PostgreSQL link directly to GIS systems such as QGIS and support point, line and polygon geometry within the database fields. Both PostgresSQL and QGIS are open source software packages.
If you have data from a spreadsheet with co-ordinate information you can normally create points within your map to represent the x and y or latitude and longitude data if you can import your data in a CSV (comma separated) format. For this reason it is normally saved by the spreadsheet software as a comma separated file prior to loading in the GIS.  Alternatively, if you do not possess the appropriate co-ordinate data you can still sometimes link your spreadsheet data to other data which does have this information via a join facility within the GIS software.
Besides relational databases and flat file formats, such as spread sheets, you may also come across what is known as No SQL database formats. These systems, such as MongoDB, do not have a relational database structure and could be compared to the flat file format of a spreadsheet. However, this file format is more sophisticated than that offered by a flat file format. No SQL databases have some advantages over relational databases. For instance they do not need a schema to be set up prior to creating the database. They are more flexible in that additional fields can be added to some elements of the database without impacting on other parts of the structure. This type of database uses a java based format called JSON. This stands for java script object notation. If you have some data in this format which you would like to use within a GIS such as QGIS you can do this by using the GEOJSON vector layer option. Your file in that instance should contain geometry data which can be line or polygon in addition to the point geometry available within a text or spreadsheet file. If your file does not have geometry you could still import the JSON data as a comma separated text file. 

Read More
0 Comments

    Author

    Joe Short BSc has been involved with various mapping solutions for over twenty years.  If you are considering implementing a GIS  or have ArcGIS Pro, MapInfo Pro or QGIS training requirements, jps services would be happy to be of assistance to your organisation. 

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    Categories

    All
    Arc Gis
    Arcview
    Autodesk
    Cad
    Gis Training
    Local Government
    Mapbasic
    Mapinfo
    Quantum Gis
    Relational Databases
    Saga Gis

    RSS Feed