A widely used GIS vector data format developed by Esri, consisting of multiple files that together store geometry and attribute data.
A shapefile is actually a collection of files (.shp, .dbf, .shx, and others) that must be kept together. It stores vector geographic features: points, lines, or polygons, along with their attributes.
Despite limitations (10-character column names, 2 GB file size limit, single geometry type per file), shapefiles remain the most common format for government GIS data. Modern alternatives include GeoPackage and GeoJSON.