# ESRI Shapefile — GIS vector format capabilities and limitations in GDAL

For ESRI Shapefile, format is ESRI Shapefile / DBF; built-in by default is This driver is built-in by default; write support is Supports Create(); field name length limit is up to 10 characters; supported field types is Only Integer, Integer64, Real, String and Date (not DateTime, just year/month/day) field types are supported. The various list, and binary field types cannot be created, recorded from its source on 2026-08-04.

- **Driver short name:** ESRI Shapefile
- **Format:** ESRI Shapefile / DBF
- **Built-in by default:** This driver is built-in by default
- **Write support:** Supports Create() _(unconfirmed — we could not tie this to the quote below)_
- **Field name length limit:** up to 10 characters _(unconfirmed — we could not tie this to the quote below)_
- **Supported field types:** Only Integer, Integer64, Real, String and Date (not DateTime, just year/month/day) field types are supported. The various list, and binary field types cannot be created. _(unconfirmed — we could not tie this to the quote below)_
- **File size limit:** the OGR shapefile implementation has a limitation to 4GB _(unconfirmed — we could not tie this to the quote below)_
- **Key limitations:** Attribute names can only be up to 10 characters long; ESRI shapefiles can only store one kind of geometry per layer (shapefile); the driver knows to auto-extend string and integer fields (up to the 255 bytes limit imposed by the DBF format) _(unconfirmed — we could not tie this to the quote below)_

## What the source says

> ://gdal.org/en/stable/drivers/vector/selafin.html> Previous ESRI Shapefile / DBF  Driver short name ESRI Shapefile Driver built-in by default This driver is built-in by default All varieties of ESRI Shapefiles should be available for reading, creation and editing. The driver can also handle standalone DBF files without associated .shp files. Normally the OG

## Source

- https://gdal.org/en/stable/drivers/vector/shapefile.html

Last verified: 2026-08-04. Review by: 2027-01-31.
Part of [GIS vector format capabilities and limitations in GDAL](https://referencesource.org/file-format-software-version-compatibility/).