What is a .SHP file?
SHP (Shapefile) is the most common GIS vector format, storing map features. Created by Esri and read by every GIS tool.
- Did you know
- Esri created the Shapefile in the early 1990s and it remains the de-facto GIS exchange format.
- A shapefile never stands alone - the .shp geometry needs at least the .shx index and a .dbf attribute table alongside it.
- Esri published the shapefile specification openly, which helped it become the de-facto exchange format across rival GIS tools.
- As gis / mapping
- Identify geographic files: Shapefile (SHP) and zipped Google Earth (KMZ). GPX, KML, and GeoJSON get full parsing + a map (see above).
- As geospatial / gis
- Inspect geospatial and GIS files without a map: TopoJSON, OpenStreetMap XML, Esri Shapefile siblings (SHP/SHX/DBF/PRJ/CPG), world files, GML, NMEA GPS logs, IGC flight logs, MapInfo TAB/MIF, GDAL VRT, PMTiles, DTED terrain, Esri ASCII grids and SRTM .hgt - surfacing CRS/EPSG, feature/record counts, bounding boxes and elevation ranges. GRIB/NetCDF/GeoPackage/MBTiles/MrSID/ECW identified.
- Depth of analysis
- .SHP is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .SHP file
- Drag a .SHP file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.