Format
TIGER/ Line Shapefile
Summary
- Name
- TIGER/ Line Shapefile
- Version
- 2007 onwards
- Identifiers
- PUID: fmt/2114
- 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. In the original 2007 specification, internal files had the structure: fe_2007_<extent>_<layer>.<extension> However, from 2008 the naming convention changed to: tl_YYYY_<extent>_<layer>.<extension> Further, TIGER/Line files related to Congressional Districts and Redistricting Data may follow the naming convention: tl_rdYY_<extent>_<layer>.<extension> ‘YYYY’ or ‘YY’ represents the year the data was produced. ‘Extent’ is a 2-5 digit value representing a geographical area. ‘Layer’ specifies the type of geography or feature that the file contains. ‘Extension’ refers to the specific file type, usually .shp, .dbf, .cpg, .shx, or .prj.
- 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 Shapefile 2007
- Description
- Identification relies on two elements: the ‘PK’ 0x0304 ZIP declaration, following by the first record in the file listing following the naming convention: 'fe_2007_' {2-5} '_' {2-16} '.'
- 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.
Byte sequences
- Min Frag Length
- Absolute from BOF
- Offset
- 0
- Max offset
- 0
- Byte Sequence
504B0304{26}66655F323030375F{2-5}5F{2-16}2E- Endianness
- None
TIGER/Line Shapefile 2008 onwards
- Description
- Identification relies on two elements: the ‘PK’ 0x0304 ZIP declaration, following by the first record in the file listing following the naming convention: tl_<YYYY>_<extent>_<layer>.<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. For now, the first two values of YY are either assumed to be ‘20’ because these have not been retrospectively applied to data before 2007, or ‘rd’, in the case of congressional redistricting data. Should this remain the convention beyond the year 2099 then the signature will need to be tweaked at that time to accommodate future datasets. The extension is assumed to be any of .cpg, .dbf .prj, .shp, .shx
Byte sequences
- Min Frag Length
- Absolute from BOF
- Offset
- 0
- Max offset
- 0
- Byte Sequence
504B0304{26}746C5F(3230|7264)[30:39][30:39]5F{2-5}5F{2-16}2E(637067|646266|70726A|736870|736878)- Endianness
- None
Changelog
-
V125
- Release date
- 7 September 2026
-
Added format
TIGER/Line Shapefile 2007 onwards: Full entry added. Submitted by Preservica.
-
Added signature
TIGER/Line Shapefile 2007 onwards: Signature researched and samples provided by Preservica.