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Format

TIGER/Line ASCII

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Summary

Name
TIGER/Line ASCII
Version
1989-2006
Identifiers
  • PUID: fmt/2113
  • MIME: None
Format type
  • Dataset
  • GIS
Description
TIGER/Line Files are extracts of selected geographic and cartographic information from the US Census Bureau's Master Address File (MAF)/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER) system. Before 2007 these were constructed of ZIP files containing ASCII data. Each ZIP represents a single county or equivalent. Each ZIP contains a number of 'Record Type' files. In the 2000 Census data there were up to 17 Record Type files per ZIP, with each named RTx where x represents a value for the nature of the Record Type, so e.g. Record Type 1 = <filename>.RT1, Record Type Z = <filename>.RTZ. In the 1992 Census data the internal files had an .F5x extension, where x represents the value for each record type.
Note
Specifications for TIGER/Line can be found on the US Census Bureau website: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/technical-documentation/complete-technical-documentation/tiger-geo-line.html
File extensions
zip
Submitted by
Preservica / Preservica

Relationships

Has priority over

Internal signatures

Tiger/Line ASCII 1989-2006

Description
Identification relies on two elements: the ‘PK’ 0x0304 ZIP declaration, following by the first record in the file listing following the naming convention TGRxxxxx., where x is a numeric value between 0-9 that represents a 5 digit ‘FIPS’ code – the identifier for each county, followed by a period (dot) that signifies the start of the file extension.
Provenance
Although these are zip files it is not currently possible to create Container Signature identification due to the variable nature of file naming within the zip. It may be possible to strengthen the signature with the use of part of the extension. According to the 2000 specification the extension was standardised in the 1997 update, and after 1997 this was ‘.RTx’, with x having one of many different alphanumeric values representing different ‘record types’, however at the time of research the only earlier data readily available was from 1992, for which the extensions appear to follow the pattern ‘.F5x’ but it is unclear what the extensions may have been during other years from 1989 to 1997. As such the current pattern used is: 'PK' 0x0304 {26} 'TGR' [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] '.'

Byte sequences

Min Frag Length
Absolute from BOF
Offset
0
Max offset
0
Byte Sequence
504B0304{26}544752[30:39][30:39][30:39][30:39][30:39]2E
Endianness
None

Changelog

  • V125

    Release date
    7 September 2026

    • Added format

      TIGER/Line ASCII1989-2006: Full entry added. Submitted by Preservica.

    • Added signature

      TIGER/Line ASCII1989-2006: Signature researched and samples provided by Preservica.