| Vector | ||
| Polyline |   | A spatial file. Contains only polylines. Green= shapefile; Blue= feature class |
| Polygon |   | A spatial file. Contain only polygons. Green= shapefile; Blue= feature class |
| Point |   | A spatial file. Contains only points. Green= shapefile; Blue= feature class |
| Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) |  | A vector representation of elevation over a landscape |
| Network Dataset |   | Network Datasets are used to create complex analysis of transportation networks utilizing detailed attributes regarding how each feature interacts with the others. Green= outside geodatabase; Black= inside geodatabase |
| Raster | ||
| Raster (Image file) |   | Any image file. May or may not be associated with spatial data. Yellow= outside geodatabase; Blue= inside geodatabase |
| Organization | ||
| Geodatabase |  | The biggest “container” for spatial data. Can contain vector or raster data. |
| Feature Dataset |  | A container for similar vector files. Can contain points, lines, or polygons (not rasters). |
| Raster Catalog | | Collections of rasters which are organized and defined by a key. Can not contain vectors. |
| Topology |  | A GIS topology is a set of rules and behaviors that model how points, lines, and polygons share coincident geometry. |
| Tables | ||
| Excel Table |  | Excel table. Contains non-spatial data. Often is ‘joined’ or ‘related’ to spatial data. |
| Other Data Table (various kinds) |   | Tables without the specific .xls file extension. May contain non-spatial numeric or text data, or may contain numeric data associated with a spatial object. Tables are not specifically spatial, but often make up a crucial part of spatial data. |
| Other Icons | ||
| Text File |  | Text files are used for any sort of textual or paragraph data storage, such as metadata (information about the spatial data) or methods/other notes. While ArcGIS can read text files, they do not serve any sort of analysis purpose for us. |
