shapefiles (version 0.7.2)

shapefiles: Read and write ESRI shapefiles

Description

This package includes functions to read and write ESRI shapefiles.

Usage

read.shapefile(shape.name)
read.shp(shp.name)
read.shx(shx.name) 
read.dbf(dbf.name, header=FALSE) 
write.shapefile(shapefile, out.name, arcgis=FALSE)
write.shp(shp, out.name)
write.shx(shx, out.name)
write.dbf(dbf, out.name, arcgis=FALSE)
calc.header(shapefile)
add.xy(shapefile)
scaleXY(shapefile, scale.factor)
convert.to.shapefile(shpTable, attTable, field, type)
convert.to.simple(shp)
change.id(shpTable, newFieldAsVector)
dp(points, tolerance)

Value

read.shapefile	list	shapefile list object
read.shp	list	shp list object
read.shx	list	shx list object
read.dbf	list	DBF list object
write.shapefile	NA	Nothing returned
write.shp	NA	Nothing returned
write.shx	NA	Nothing returned
write.dbf	NA	Nothing returned
calc.header	list	shapefile list object
add.xy	list	shapefile list object
scaleXY	list	shapefile list object
convert.to.shapefile	list	shapefile list object
convert.to.simple	list	data.frame list data.frame
change.id	list	data.frame list data.frame
dp	list	data.frame list data.frame

Arguments

shape.name

String of the shapefile file name without an extension

shp.name

String of the shp file name with an extension

shx.name

String of the shx file name with an extension

dbf.name

String of the dbf file name with an extension

shapefile

The shapefile object of lists created by read.shapefile

out.name

Filename to write the data to

shp

shp portion (list) of the shapefile object of lists

shx

shx portion (list) of the shapefile object of lists

dbf

dbf portion (list) of the shapefile object of lists

scale.factor

Number to divide the shapefile geography by

arcgis

Replace "." with "_" in column names for ArcGIS

shpTable

data.frame with columns in order Id, X, and Y

attTable

data.frame with first column names "Id" - polygon id (key)

type

ESRI Shape type 1=point, 3=polyLine, 5=polygon

field

A field name in the attTable

newFieldAsVector

A vector of Ids to replace to the Ids in the shpTable

points

A named list of two vectors (x and y) representing points

tolerance

A tolerance setting for the DP polyLine simplification algorithm

header

Should read.dbf return the header?

Author

Ben Stabler <>

Details

ESRI shapefiles consist of three files. The first file (*.shp) contains the geography of each shape. The second file (*.shx) is an index file which contains record offsets. The third file (*.dbf) contains feature attributes with one record per feature.

read.shapefile calls read.shp, read.shx, and read.dbf to read in an entire shapefile. The result of read.shapefile is a list of many more lists. The sublists are shp, shx, and dbf. Each sublist contains a header list and some sort of data list. The shp list is a list of $shp$header and $shp$shp. The shx list is a list of $shx$header and $shx$index. The dbf list is a list of $dbf$header and $dbf$dbf.

The write functions write out a shp, shx, and dbf file from the shapefile list structure. To write out a shapefile from simple R data, you need to run convert.to.shapefile. The inputs to this function are a simple data frame of points (for points, polyLines, or polygons) and a data frame representing the dbf file. Examples are below.

The package reads shape types 1 (point), 3 (polyLine), 5 (polygon), 13 (polyLineZ), and 15 (polygonZ). Reading of shape type 13 and 15 from Don MacQueen,

The package writes shape types 1 (point), 3 (polyLine), 5 (polygon), 13 (polyLineZ), and 15 (polygonZ). Conversion of simple polygons to shapefile format from Manuel Chirouze,

For simple features, the only difference between polyLines and polygons is that the first and last point is the same for a polygon. The convert.to.simple function can be used to simplify the shp file to a simple data.frame. The change.id function can then be used to change the Id field for the simple shp data.frame to a field from a data.frame (dbf).

For details about the ESRI shapefile structure refer to https://www.esri.com/content/dam/esrisites/sitecore-archive/Files/Pdfs/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf. A detailed description of DBF files can be found at https://www.e-bachmann.dk/docs/xbase.htm. The arcgis argument to write.dbf replaces "." with "_" in field names since ArcGIS does not allow the former. Note that the read.dbf and write.dbf functions in the foreign package are now used for reading and writing dbfs, which greatly improves the speed of reading/writing dbfs.

Function dp is an implementation of the Douglas-Peucker polyLine simplification algorithm. Douglas, D. and Peucker, T. (1973). "Algorithms for the reduction of the number of points required to represent a digitized line or its caricature." The Canadian Cartographer 10(2). 112-122. dp currently uses the line, not the line segment to determine the distance of the points from the line. This can result in the omission of extreme "outlier-like" points. See tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.3138/FM57-6770-U75U-7727") for more information.

Examples

if (FALSE) {
#Read entire shapefile
shapefile <- read.shapefile("links")

#Write entire shapefile
write.shapefile(shapefile, "temp", T)

#Read shp, shx, or dbf file
dbf <- read.dbf("links.dbf")

#Write shp, shx, or dbf file
write.dbf(dbf, "links.dbf", T)

#Calculate header (to clean up GeoMedia shapefile exports)
shapefile <- calc.header(shapefile)

#Add the X and Y coordinates to the dbf list of the shapefile list object
shapefile <- add.xy(shapefile)

#Scale the shapefile by scale.factor
shapefile <- scaleXY(shapefile, scale.factor)

#Samples of using the convert.to.shapefile function to write out simple shapefiles
#from basic R data.frames

#Point
dd <- data.frame(Id=c(1,2),X=c(3,5),Y=c(9,6))
ddTable <- data.frame(Id=c(1,2),Name=c("Item1","Item2"))
ddShapefile <- convert.to.shapefile(dd, ddTable, "Id", 1)
write.shapefile(ddShapefile, "c:/test", arcgis=T)

#PolyLine
dd <- data.frame(Id=c(1,1,1,2,2,2),X=c(3,5,8,6,7,8),Y=c(9,8,3,6,7,4))
ddTable <- data.frame(Id=c(1,2),Name=c("Item1","Item2"))
ddShapefile <- convert.to.shapefile(dd, ddTable, "Id", 3)
write.shapefile(ddShapefile, "c:/test", arcgis=T)

#Polygon
dd <- data.frame(Id=c(1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2),X=c(3,5,8,3,6,7,8,6),Y=c(9,8,3,9,6,7,4,6))
ddTable <- data.frame(Id=c(1,2),Name=c("Item1","Item2"))
ddShapefile <- convert.to.shapefile(dd, ddTable, "Id", 5)
write.shapefile(ddShapefile, "c:/test", arcgis=T)

#Convert to list of shapes
ddAsList <- by(dd,dd$Id, function(x) x)

#Convert to data.frame
dd <- do.call(rbind, ddAsList)

#Read in shp file and convert to simple format
shpTest <- read.shp("c:/test.shp")
simpleShpFormat <- convert.to.simple(shpTest)
simpleShpFormat <- change.id(simpleShpFormat, c("a","b"))
simpleAsList <- by(simpleShpFormat, simpleShpFormat[,1], function(x) x)
backToShape <- convert.to.shapefile(simpleShpFormat, 
	data.frame(index=c("a","b")), "index", 5)
write.shapefile(backToShape, "c:/test", arcgis=T)

#Polyline simplification with dp algorithm
x <- c(5,3,4,1,8,9,10,11)
y <- c(6,4,2,1,1,5,2,3)
points <- list(x=x,y=y)
plot(points, type="l")
simpleLine <- dp(points, 2)
lines(simpleLine, type="l", col="blue")

}