ESRI ArcInfo DAT File (Internal)

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Files which comprise part of an ArcInfo Coverage, which is a data model whose purpose is to store georelational data such as spatial location and descriptive data. Each ArcInfo Coverage resides in an ArcInfo workspace, a directory which contains two or more folders. These packages are generated using ArcGIS software, produced by Esri (https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/about-arcgis/overview.) An ArcInfo coverage dataset typically has two types of .dat file: internal, which store the actual data table, and external, which contains a relative path to the data table. These external files, which have extension .dat, follow a unique naming pattern: arcXXXX.dat, where XXXX is incrementally increasing number starting from 0000, e.g. arc0000.dat, arc0001.dat. The .dat files always come in pair with a NIT file and are both stored in an INFO directory at the root. Internal .dat files usually contain the byte sequence BOF, 000000.

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Extensions.dat
PRONOMfmt/1600
WikidataQ111520154

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From PRONOM, Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-20.

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