Mapping Toolbox

tigermif

Read TIGER MIF (MapInfo Interchange Format) thinned boundary files

Syntax

• tigermif(namesstruc)
  tigermif(namesstruc,filename)
  tigermif(namesstruc,filename,pstruc)
  tigermif(namesstruc,filename,pstruc,tstruc)
  tigermif(namesstruc,filename,pstruc,tstruc,getcodes)
  pstruc = tigermif(...)
  [pstruc,tstruc] = tigermif(...)
  

Background

TIGER Thinned Boundary files are lower resolution extracts from the U.S. Census Bureau's detailed TIGER/Line database. U.S. state and county boundaries are available in the MapInfo Interchange format (MIF).

Description

tigermif(namesstruc) reads a TIGER thinned boundary file in the MIF format. The user selects the file interactively, but must provide the structure containing the names (as returned by the fipsname function). The patch data is returned in a Mapping Toolbox geographic data structure.

tigermif(namesstruc,filename) reads the MIF file named in the string filename. The filename is provided with the '.MIF' extension. If the file is not found, a dialog box is activated to allow the user to select a file interactively.

tigermif(namesstruc,filename,pstruc) appends the patch data to the existing structure, pstruc.

tigermif(namesstruc,filename,pstruc,tstruc) appends the data in the file to the existing patch and text geographic data structures, pstruc and tstruc. The text structure contains labels for the patches. This form would be used with two output arguments. The arguments for the existing structures can be set to empty matrices if none are available.

tigermif(namesstruc,filename,pstruc,tstruc,getcodes) returns only the data matching the scalar or vector of numeric FIPS codes.

pstruc = tigermif(...) saves the returned patch data in pstruc.

[pstruc,tstruc] = tigermif(...) saves the returned patch data in pstruc and text labels in tstruc. Both are geographic data structures.

Remarks

The data files are available over the Internet from:

• ftp://ftp.census.gov/pub/tiger/boundary/
  

Extremely limited documentation on the files is available on the World Wide Web from:

• http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/geo/www/tiger/mif.txt
  

and

• http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/geo/www/tiger/resource.html
  

Examples

Read the names file (contains the names of U.S. states and territories):

• namestruc = fipsname('st_name.dat')
  namestruc = 
  1x57 struct array with fields:
      name
      id
  

Read the file containing Hawaii's thinned state boundaries and text labels into a Mapping Toolbox geographic data structure:

• [ps,ts] = tigermif(namestruc,'ST15.MIF')
  ps = 
                lat: [1585x1 double]
               long: [1585x1 double]
               type: 'patch'
      otherproperty: {}
                tag: 'Hawaii'
           altitude: []
  ts = 
                lat: 21.1343
               long: -157.9524
               type: 'text'
                tag: 'maptext'
      otherproperty: {1x2 cell}
             string: {1x1 cell}
           altitude: []
  

Read the file containing Alaska's thinned state boundaries, and append it to the Hawaii data:

• [ps,ts] = tigermif(namestruc,'ST02.MIF',ps,ts)
  ps = 
  1x2 struct array with fields:
      lat
      long
      type
      otherproperty
      tag
      altitude
  ts = 
  1x2 struct array with fields:
      lat
      long
      type
      tag
      otherproperty
      string
      altitude
  

Get the state boundaries and text labels for part of New England. The FIPS codes for Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are 9, 25, and 44, respectively:

• [ps,ts] = tigermif(namestruc,'ST_LOW48.MIF',[],[],[9 25 44])
  ps = 
  1x3 struct array with fields:
      lat
      long
      type
      otherproperty
      tag
      altitude
  ts = 
  1x3 struct array with fields:
      lat
      long
      type
      tag
      otherproperty
      string
      altitude
  

See Also

dcwdata	Read selected data from the Digital Chart of the World
fipsname	Read TIGER thinned boundary file FIPS names
tgrline	Read data from TIGER/Line files
tigerp	Read TIGER ArcInfo Format thinned boundary files

tgrline

tigerp