Database Files

Fred Pospeschil and Antonio Rivera

Fred Pospeschil (AKA Micro Doc)
2739 42nd St.
Two Rivers, WI 54241-1111

E-mail:

The basic world and state database files are provided with MicroCAM. If you are interested in developing your own application using the World Data Bank or Census Bureau data, contact Micro Doc for current prices (very nominal) and availability of all of their mapping databases and geographic utility programs.

• World Data Bank II File Format
• Packed Database File Format
• Digital Line Graph Database File Format
• Digital Chart of the World (DCW) ASCII File Format
• World Data Bank II Database
• US Census Bureau Database
• Standard Library Database
• Caribbean Database
• Commonwealth of Independent States Database
• Middle East Database
• Canadian Province Database

World Data Bank II File Format

 POINT = RECORD
    CODE: INTEGER;
    LAT: INTEGER;
    LON: INTEGER;
 END;

CODE defines two different things depending on whether it is the first point in the line or any subsequent point. The first points CODE has the format AABBB where AA is the feature category in the range 1 to 8 (3 is not used), where:

• 1 = Coastlines (208 lines)
• 2 = Country borders (301 lines)
• 4 = State borders (111 lines)
• 5 = Islands (344 lines)
• 6 = Lakes (103 lines)
• 7 = Rivers (196 lines)
• 8 = County borders (in the US Census Bureau data files AK.PNT through WY.PNT)

The BBB is a sequential number of that line within a feature category with a range from 1 to 999. There is no line count data; a line continues until EOF or a new header record is encountered. CODE for each subsequent point contains a detail level from 1 to 5. The LAT and LON values are signed integers that are the respective coordinate in minutes so LAT will be in the range -5400 to 5400 and LON will be in the range -10800 to 10800.

User data files for use with the LINEFILE command must have the same structure as the database files. In a user data file, AA is a user-definable category in the range of 1 to 32 (it must be at least 1). The MicroCAM command to read these files allows you to specify a specific category or all categories. BBB is the sequential number of the line within a category from 1 to 999. This value is not used by the MicroCAM LINEFILE command. CODE for each subsequent point may be a detail level from 1 to 999. You can specify the detail level when plotting the line with LINEFILE. The specified level includes all higher numbered levels (e.g., level 3 means any level >= 3). The LAT and LON values are as described above.

Packed Database File Format

The packed file format is a file of short integers, a signed byte value in the range of 127 through +127. The compression algorithm is based on the (enforced) fact that each point in a line differs from the previous point by less than �127 seconds. This fact is the foundation of the compression process. A packed database file is created by sequentially processing and saving each line in the following format:

1. The rank (0 to 127) for the line is stored in one short integer.
2. The number of points in the line (0 to 9999) is stored as two short integers. The first two digits (thousands and hundreds place, 0 to 99xx) are stored in the first short integer. The second two digits (tens and units place, 0 to 99) are stored in the next short integer.
3. The minimum bounding longitude for the line is stored as three short integers:
   1. Degrees: if degrees >= 128 then store as -(degrees - 128)
   2. Minutes
   3. Signed seconds (+E, -W).

4. The minimum bounding latitude for the line is stored as three short integers:
   1. Signed degrees (+N, -S)
   2. Minutes
   3. Seconds.

5. Steps 3 & 4 are repeated for the maximum bounding longitude and latitude. This completes the header data for the line, a total of 15 bytes.

6. Steps 3 & 4 are repeated for the longitude and latitude of the first point in the line.

7. Each remaining point in the line is stored as two short integers:
   1. Delta longitude in seconds (�0-127) from the previous point
   2. Delta latitude in seconds (�0-127) from the previous point.

Digital Line Graph Database File Format

Each polyline is stored using two 20-byte record types, a line identifier record and multiple latitude-longitude records (one for each coordinate pair):

1. Line identifier record:
   1. Line identifier
      • Range: 0 to 9999999
      • Integer value, 7 Characters
      • Not used by MicroCAM

   2. Rank
      • Range: 0 to 99
      • Integer value, 2 Characters

   3. Number of coordinate pairs (NCP) in the line
      • Range: 0 to 999999
      • Integer value, 6 Characters

   4. Attribute code
      • Integer value, 5 Characters
      • Not used by MicroCAM

2. Latitude-longitude record (repeated NCP times):
   1. Latitude
      • Format: DDMMSSH (H = N or S)
      • DD = Integer value, 2 Characters
      • MM = Integer value, 2 Characters
      • SS = Integer value, 2 Characters
      • H = Alpha value, l Character

   2. Longitude
      • Format: DDDMMSSH (H = E or W)
      • DDD = Integer value, 3 Characters
      • MM = Integer value, 2 Characters
      • SS = Integer value, 2 Characters
      • H = Alpha value, l Character

   3. Sequence count
      • Integer value, 5 Characters
      • Not used by MicroCAM

Indexing Digital Line Graph Files

Since the DLG "graphic" format does not contain information about a lines extents, each data file must be serially processed for its complete length. This can take a long time when the data are stored on a CDROM. To improve the performance of MicroCAM when processing DLG "graphic" data, a tool, DLG Indexer, is provided. This tool can be used to create a companion index file for each DLG file to be accessed. Select the Tool menu option and the DLG Indexer. Use the standard file selection dialog to select one or more DLG "graphic" format file to index (e.g., SEC01_RR.GRF). The index file is created in the MicroCAM data directory (as read from the WINCAM.INI file) with the same filename and an .IDX extension (e.g., SEC01_RR.IDX). When the DLGFILE command is used to access a DLG file, MicroCAM checks for the presence of an index file with the same name and, if found, the index file is used to prequalify each line for the current map based on the map boundaries.

Digital Chart of the World (DCW) ASCII File Format

Two commands in MicroCAM for Windows allow access to the DCW ASCII-format data files. The DCWFILE command processes the line features in DCW and the DCWTEXT command processes the DCW text labels for features.

Mounting DCW Data

The ASCII data files must first be mounted on your system. The DCW Mounter option under the Tools menu will uncompress the DCW files from the CDROM and place them under the DCW path on your system. Since each 5 by 5 tile of DCW data has files with the same names, each new tile mounted will replace the previous one unless you use the mount in subdirectory option which will create a subdirectory under the DCW path named for the tile mounted (e.g., DCWPATH\40N090W).

DCW Filenames

The major names used by PhD Associates for the DCW ASCII-format files are (the nn represents different detail level files; see the PhD Associates documentation):

World Data Bank II Database

US Census Bureau Database

Standard Library Database

AFGHANistan, AITUTAKI island, ALASKA, ALBANIA, ALGERIA, ANDORRA, ANGOLA, ANTARCTica, ANTIGUA,ARGENTINa, AUSTRALIa, AUSTRIA, BAHAMAS, BAHRAIN, BANGLaDeSH, BARBADOS, BELGIUM, BELIZE, BENIN, BERMUDA, BHUTAN, BOLIVIA, BOTSWANA, BRAZIL, BRITAIN, BuRKINA_Faso , BRUNEI, BULGARIA, BURUNDI, Central_AFRiCan_Republic, CAMBODIA, CAMEROON, CANADA, CHAD, CHILE, CHINA, COLUMBIA, COMOROS, CONGO, COSTA_RIca, CUBA, CYPRUS, CZECHoSLoVakia, DENMARK, DJIBOUTI, DOMinican_REPublic, DOMINICA, East_GERMaNY, Equatorial_GUINEA, ECUADOR, EGYPT, EL_SALVAdor, ETHIOPIA, French_GUIANA, FALKLAND islands, FIJI, FINLAND, FRANCE, Guinea_BISSAU, GABON, GAMBIA, GERMANY, GHANA, GIBRALTaR, GREECE, GREENLaND, GRENADA, GUADELOUpe, GUAM, GUATEMALa, GUINEA, GUYANA, HAITI, HAWAII, HONDURAS, HONGKONG, HUNGARY, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIa, IRAN, IRAQ, IRELAND, ISRAEL, ITALY, IVORY_CoasT, JAMAICA, JAPAN, JORDAN, KENYA, KIRIBATI, KUWAIT, LAOS, LEBANON, LESOTHO, LIBERIA, LIBYA, LIECHTENstein, LUXEMBouRG, MADAGASCar, MALAWI, MALAYSIA, MALI, MARTINIQue, MAURITANia, MEXICO, MONACO, MONGOLIA, MONSERRrat, MOROCCO, MOZAMBIQue, MYANMAR, New_CALEDOnia, Northern_IRELaND, North_KOREA, New_ZEALaND, NAMIBIA, NEPAL, NETHeRLaNDs, NICARAGUa, NIGER, NIGERIA, NIUE_ISland, NORWAY, OMAN, Puerto_RICO, PAKISTAN, PANAMA, PAPua_New_GuiNea, PARAGUAY, PERU, PHILIPPines, POLAND, PORTUGAL, QATAR, ROMANIA, RWANDA, South_AFRICA, Saudi_ARABIA, South_KOREA, Sierra_LEONE, San_MARINO, South_Yemen, SENEGAL, SINGAPORe, SOLOMON islands, SOMALIA, SPAIN, SRILANKA, ST_KITTS, ST_LUCIA, ST_VINCEnt, SUDAN, SURINAME, SWAZILaND, SWEDEN, SWITZeRLanD, SYRIA, TAHITI, TAIWAN, TANZANIA, THAILAND, TOGO, TONGA, TRINIDAD, TUNISIA, TURKEY, United Arab Emirates, UGANDA, URUGUAY, USA, USSR, VANUATU, VENEZUELa, VIETNAM, VIRGIN_Islands, West_GERMaNY, Western_SAMOA,
YemenArabRepublic, YEMEN, YUGOSLAVia, ZAIRE, ZAMBIA, ZIMBABWE.

Caribbean Database

1. Antigua
2. Barbados
3. Grenada
4. Montserrat
5. St. Kitts
6. St. Lucia
7. St. Vincent

Commonwealth of Independent States Database

1. Armenia/Azerbaijan SE
2. Armenia/Georgia
3. Armenia/Azerbaijan SW
4. Azerbaijan/Georgia
5. Azerbaijan/Russia
6. Belarus/Latvia
7. Belarus/Lithuania
8. Belarus/Russia
9. Belarus/Ukraine
10. Estonia/Latvia
11. Estonia/Russia
12. Georgia/Russia
13. Kazakhstan/Kirghizstan
14. Kazakhstan/Russia
15. Kazakhstan/Turkmenistan
16. Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan
17. Kirghizstan/Tajikstan
18. Kirghizstan/Uzbekistan
19. Latvia/Lithuania
20. Latvia/Russia
21. Lithuania/Russia
22. Moldava/Ukraine
23. Russia/Ukraine
24. Tajikstan/Uzbekistan
25. Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan

Middle East Database

1. Oman/United Arab Emirates border
2. Saudi Arabia/Yemen Arab Rep. border
3. Saudi Arabia/P. D. R. of Yemen border
4. Saudi Arabia/Oman border (approx.)
5. Saudi Arabia/United Arab Emirates border (approx.)
6. Israel/Jordan border (occupied territory)
7. Israel/Jordan border (1948)

Canadian Province Database

1. Yukon/Northwest Territories border
2. Yukon/Northwest Territories southern border
3. British Columbia/Alberta border
4. Alberta/Saskatchewan border
5. Saskatchewan/Manitoba border
6. Manitoba/Ontario border
7. Ontario/Quebec border
8. Quebec/New Brunswick border
9. New Brunswick/Nova Scotia border
10. Quebec/Newfoundland border.