Lesson 2: Download the ESRI shapefile data

Prerequisites

This lesson assumes you have completed all preceding lessons. See Lesson 1: Install additional units of measure and spatial reference systems.

This lesson assumes you have the roles and privileges listed in the Privileges section at the start of this tutorial: Tutorial: Experimenting with the spatial features.

Task
  1. Create a local directory called c:\temp\massdata.
  2. Go to the following URL: http://www2.census.gov/cgi-bin/shapefiles2009/national-files
  3. On the right side of the page, in the State- and County-based Shapefiles dropdown, click Massachusetts, and then click Submit.
  4. On the left side of the page, click 5-Digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area (2002), and then click Download Selected Files.
  5. When prompted, save the zip file, multiple_tiger_files.zip, to c:\temp\massdata, and extract its contents. This creates a subdirectory called 25_MASSACHUSETTS containing another zip file called tl_2009_25_zcta5.zip.
  6. Extract the contents of tl_2009_25_zcta5.zip to C:\temp\massdata.

This lesson unpacks five files, including an ESRI shapefile (.shp) that you can use to load the spatial data into the database.

Parent topic: Tutorial: Experimenting with the spatial features