What is the difference between a Shapefile and Featureclass?

  • The main differences are:
    • Shapefiles are stored in a file folder (windows)
    • FeatureClass is stored in a Geodatabase
  • Open Windows explorer and navigate to the work directory where your data is stored: “C:\workspace”
  • Notice that there are many files. This is a shapefile just like we learned about in week 1. Find the file that ends with.dbf. This is a DBASE file that stores the attributes. This can even be opened in excel. If you edit in excel you might corrupt the data so this is not advised.
  • Having all these files floating around in your computer can cause a data storage nightmare. Look in week 2 folder containing all the shapefiles from last week’s lab. Esri created the geodatabase model as a more efficient method of storing and managing data.
  • Other reasons why the geodatabase is better:
  • The main point to remember is that people still use shapefiles to transfer data and often times use it as a medium to convert data between software such as AutoCad and Esri, but the majority of work is done in a Geodatabase now.