Appendix B: Spatial file naming conventions

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For the 2011 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 ArcGIS®'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

Table B.1 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_
Population centre	pc_	cp_
Designated place	dpl	ld_
Dissemination area	da_	ad_
Dissemination block	db_	id_
Population ecumene	ecu	ecu
Agricultural ecumene	eco	eco
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

Table B.2 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
  digital boundary file
• b
  cartographic boundary file
• c
  interior lakes and rivers hydrographic reference file (polygon)
• d
  interior rivers hydrographic reference file (line)
• e
  ecumene
• h
  hydrographic coverage of Great Lakes, St Lawrence River and surrounding oceans

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

• 11
  geographic reference date is January 1, 2011

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 2011 Census Subdivision Digital Boundary File for Newfoundland and Labrador with English attributes in GML format: gcsd010a11g_e.zip
• The 2011 Economic Region Boundary File for Alberta with French attributes in MapInfo format: gre_048b11m_f.zip