ESRI
E00 Exchange file
The ESRI exchange format is an ASCII format that was developed to exchange "coverages" between ESRI's GIS packages on Unix and Windows platforms. It supports one data set per file. Raster data sets, GRID files in ESRI's terminology, can have only one band of the dspInt32 or dspFloat32 data type. A single file is completely self-contained.
| General |
ASCII file-based format for a single data set of any kind. The format is indended for the exchange of data sets between computers. The format is very inefficient for random access, and you are advised to convert the data set to some other format before using it. The data in the file are organized in sections. Currently the driver reads the GRD and IFO sections only, which are sufficient to ingest raster data. This format is proprietary and not authoritatively described. The current driver does not support compressed E00 files, nor any data set that are spanned across multiple files (but you can manually join the files (E00, E01, E02, ...) in a single file, which this driver will read). |
| Read |
The driver reads the file by section. The GRD section contains the raster data in a fairly straightforward design. Floating point data is converted to dspFloat32, and integer data is converted to dspInt32. Other data types are not supported. The IFO section contains tabular data that belongs to the data set. This section is parsed as well, with the results being represented in TClientDataSet instances, but these instances are not yet exposed to the DSpatial kernel. If you export a table from ArcInfo, this driver will successfully read the exchange file and create a TClientDataSet, but it will not be available to the kernel. |
| Write |
This format does not support writing of new or modified data sets. |
| Attributes | This format does not include any attributes. The LOG section can be considered to contain attributes, but this section is not parsed. |
| Coordinate system |
The file contains a section with coordinate system information. Currently this section is not yet parsed. |
| Documentation | The E00 format is proprietary and not authoritatively documented. There is a multitude of web sites devoted to deciphering the format though. |
| Data sources | This format was widely used by ESRI to distribute raster data, but it is now losing its importance. ESRI offers the Geography Network where you can search for and download spatial data. |
| Developer information |
Currently only the GRD and IFO sections are parsed. If you want to implement parsing of other sections you should look up the information on the web. |