Mapping Toolbox

tigerp

Read TIGER p and pa (ArcInfo Format) thinned boundary files

Syntax

• tigerp(namestruc)
  tigerp(namestruc,filename)
  tigerp(namestruc,filename,pstruc)
  tigerp(namestruc,filename,pstruc,tstruc)
  tigerp(namestruc,filename,pstruc,tstruc,getcodes)
  pstruc = tigerp(...)
  [pstruc,tstruc] = tigerp(...)
  

Background

TIGER Thinned Boundary files are lower resolution extracts from the U.S. Census Bureau's more detailed TIGER/Line database. State, county, minor civil division, census tract/block numbering area, american Indian reservation/Alaska native village statistical area, Alaska native regional corporation, urbanized areas, metropolitan areas, and congressional district boundaries are available in the ArcInfo format.

Description

tigerp(namesstruc) reads a TIGER thinned boundary file in the ArcInfo 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.

tigerp(namesstruc,filename) reads the ArcInfo file named in the string filename. The file name is provided without the '_p' or '_pa' extension.

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

tigerp(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.

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

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

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

Remarks

Coordinate values are based on Clarke's spheroid of 1866 and the North American Datum, 1927 (NAD27).

The data files are available over the Internet from:

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

Documentation for the files is available from:

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

Examples

Read the names file with the names of all counties in the U.S. and territories. This file is in FIPS format:

• namestruc = fipsname('co_name.dat')
  namestruc = 
  1x3248 struct array with fields:
      name
      id
  

Read the file containing Alaska's thinned county boundaries into a Mapping Toolbox geographic data structure:

• [ps,ts] = tigerp(namestruc,'co_02_p.dat')
  ps = 
  1x26 struct array with fields:
      lat
      long
      type
      otherproperty
      altitude
      tag
  ts = 
  1x26 struct array with fields:
      lat
      long
      type
      tag
      otherproperty
      altitude
      string
  

Read only the Aleutians East and West:

• [ps,ts] = tigerp(namestruc,'co_02_p.dat',[],[],[2013 2016])
  ps = 
  1x2 struct array with fields:
      lat
      long
      type
      otherproperty
      altitude
      tag
  ts = 
  1x2 struct array with fields:
      lat
      long
      type
      tag
      otherproperty
      altitude
      string
  

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
tigermif	Read TIGER MapInfo Interchange Format thinned boundary files

tigermif

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