Appendix B: Spatial file naming conventions

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For the 2006 Census, spatial product file names for files disseminated to clients follow a spatial file naming convention. The geographic area and code, file type, date stamp, software type and language will be embedded within the name. Standardizing the names of the files should facilitate the storage of compressed files, all having the extension .zip.

Each file name is 13 characters in length, which meets the requirements of ArcInfo®'s and MapInfo®'s limitations for file name sizes. All alphabetic characters are in lower case to maintain consistency.

First character: projection of file

  • g
    if projection is Geographic (latitude/longitude)
  • l
    if projection is Lambert Conformal Conic

Next three characters: primary geographic area of file

Spatial file naming conventions — geographic area of file
Geographic area / product English file French file
National / provincial pr_ pr_
Federal electoral district fed cef
Economic region er_ re_
Census division cd_ dr_
Census subdivision csd sdr
Census agricultural region car rar
Census consolidated subdivision ccs sru
Census metropolitan area / census agglomeration cma rmr
Census tract ct_ sr_
Urban area ua_ ru_
Designated place dpl ld_
Dissemination area da_ ad_
Dissemination block db_ id_
Population ecumene ecu ecu
Agricultural ecumene eca eca
Road network file rnf frr
International boundary files (part of mainland U.S.A. and Alaska as well as Greenland) int int
Supporting hydrography (Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River, oceans, etc.) hy_ hy_

Next three numbers: geographic code of coverage

Spatial file naming conventions — geographic code of coverage
National coverage Provincial and territorial coverages
000 010 Newfoundland and Labrador
011 Prince Edward Island
012 Nova Scotia
013 New Brunswick
024 Quebec
035 Ontario
046 Manitoba
047 Saskatchewan
048 Alberta
059 British Columbia
060 Yukon
061 Northwest Territories
062 Nunavut

 

Next character: file type

  • a
    if digital boundary file, detailed coverage for large-scale mapping, excluding hydrographic coverage
  • b
    if cartographic boundary file, detailed coverage for small-scale mapping
  • c
    if detailed interior lakes hydrographic coverage (polygon)
  • d
    if detailed interior rivers hydrographic coverage (line)
  • e
    ecumene
  • f
    if detailed interior lakes hydrographic coverage - closure lines (line)
  • g
    cartographic boundary file, generalized for desktop mapping
  • h
    additional cartographic international boundary coverage and hydrographic coverage of Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River and surrounding oceans
  • l
    if detailed interior islands (part of hydrographic coverage (polygon))
  • r
    road network files (RNFs)

Next two numbers: dissemination year (date stamp for versioning)

  • 05
    if disseminated in 2005
  • 06
    if disseminated in 2006

Next character: file format

  • a
    ArcInfo® shapefile (.shp)
  • m
    MapInfo® TAB file (.tab)
  • g
    Geography Markup Language (GML) file (.gml)

Final two characters: language

  • _e
    English
  • _f
    French

Examples of the use of the file naming conventions

  • The 2006 Census Subdivision Digital Boundary File for Newfoundland and Labrador with English attributes in GML format: gcsd010a06g_e.zip
  • The 2006 Economic Region Boundary File for Alberta with French attributes in MapInfo format: gre_048b06m_f.zip