Appendix C

Archived Content

Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.

For the 2006 Census, spatial product file names for files disseminated to clients follow a spatial file naming convention. The geographic area and code, file type, geographic reference date, 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 ESRI^®'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 C.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_
Urban area	ua_	ru_
Designated place	dpl	ld_
Dissemination area	da_	ad_
Dissemination block	db_	id_
Population ecumene	ecu	eco
Population ecumene national/provincial	epr	epr
Population ecumene census division	ecd	edr
Agricultural ecumene	eca	eca
Road network file	rnf	frr
Road network and geographic attribute file	rgf	frg
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 C.2
Spatial file naming conventions - geographic code of coverage
National, provincial and territorial coverages
000	Canada
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 Territory
061	Northwest Territories
062	Nunavut

Next character: file type

a	if digital boundary file, detailed coverage for large-scale mapping excluding hydrographic coverage
b	if cartographic boundary file, detailed coverage for small-scale mapping
c	if detailed interior lakes hydrographic coverage (polygon)
d	if detailed interior rivers hydrographic coverage (line)
e	ecumene
f	if detailed interior lakes hydrographic coverage – closure lines (line)
g	cartographic boundary file, generalized for desktop mapping
h	additional cartographic international boundary coverage and hydrographic coverage of Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River and surrounding oceans
l	if detailed interior islands (part of hydrographic coverage [polygon])
r	road network files (RNFs)

Following two numbers: geographic reference date

The geographic reference date is a date determined by Statistics Canada for the purpose of finalizing the geographic framework for which census data will be collected, tabulated and reported. For the 2006 Census, the geographic reference date is January 1, 2006.

05		if geographic reference date is 2005
06		if geographic reference date is 2006

Next character: file format

a		ESRI^® shapefile (.shp)
m		MapInfo^® TAB file (.tab)

Final two characters: language

_e		English
_f		French

Example of the use of the file naming conventions

The 2006 Agriculture Ecumene Census Division Boundary File with English attributes in MapInfo^® format: geca000e06m_e.zip.