Organizing vector data

The basic unit of the vector data model is the feature. Because it would be impractical to digitally store every feature by itself, the vector data model provides a way to organize them.

The basic storage unit for features is called a feature class. A feature class is a collection of features that share the same geometry type and the same attributes and that are located within a common geographic extent.

For example, all customer locations for a group of business franchises can be organized into a point feature class named "Customers." All the roads in a city can be organized into a line feature class named "Roads." Areas in a city can be organized into a polygon feature class called "Zoning."

All features in a feature class have the same geometry type, the same attributes, and are located within a common geographic extent.

There are three common vector data formats that use feature classes to store collections of features: the geodatabase, coverage, and shapefile. You will learn about each of these data formats next.