The ESRI Shapefile is a widely used file format for storing vector-based geopatial data (i.e., points, lines, and polygons). This example demonstrates use of several different R packages that provide functions for reading and/or writing shapefiles.

Use the GDAL/OGR utilities ogrinfo and gdalinfo to get information about a spatial dataset, including spatial reference information (e.g., the projection), a summary of any attribute data for points, lines, and polygons, and/or a summary of grid cell values for rasters.