We all LOVE GIS data. “Everything happens somewhere”. But what happens when you get some really cool “data” for your project, eg. Roads.gpx? What is a .gpx file? The following is a quick 101 summary of some common vector file formats.
A shapefile actually consists of several files.
Mandatory
Optional
If you ever receive a .shp only you will need to request that all three files are sent in order to use the data. Recommended that the .prj is also mandatory.
MapInfo .tab files are a proprietary format for MapInfo software. Similar to shapefiles, they require a set of files to represent geographic information and attributes.
Back to our “Roads.gpx”… which is a .gps Exchange format.
See https://gisgeography.com/gis-formats/ other common vector types.
If all else fails, a Google search can usually uncover some less common formats.