A shapefile is a popular geospatial vector data format for geographic information systems (GIS) software. It is developed and regulated by Esri as a mostly open specification for data interoperability among Esri and other GIS software products. A shapefile spatially describes geometries as points, lines, and polygons, each representing a feature. These features can represent anything from simple points of interest to complex geographic regions. The shapefile format actually comprises several files, typically including .shp (the main shape file containing the geometry), .shx (an index file that speeds up spatial queries), .dbf (a dBase file containing attribute data associated with each feature), .prj (a projection file defining the coordinate system), and others like .sbn and .sbx (spatial index files), .fbn and .fbx (attribute index files), .ain and .aih (attribute index files), .atx (attribute index files), .xml (metadata), and .cpg (character encoding). Shapefiles are widely used for storing and exchanging geographic data due to their simplicity and broad support across various GIS platforms. However, they have limitations, such as a 2GB size limit and lack of support for storing topology.