Feature Representation

In addition to the generic FME feature attributes that FME Workbench adds to all features (see About Feature Type Attributes), this format adds the format-specific attributes described in this topic.

With a few exceptions, an FME feature is created for each record of a TIGER/Line data file. Each file, that is, .RT1, .RTA, is translated to an appropriate FME feature type, with attribute names matching those in the TIGER/Line product manual.

The TIGER/Line RT (record type) and VERSION attributes are generally discarded, but the MODULE attribute is added to each feature. The MODULE attribute contains the file base name, for example, TGR26001, of the county from which the feature originated. For some keys, such as LAND, POLYID, and CENID, this MODULE attribute is needed to make the key unique when the DATASET folder consists of more than one logical file, i.e. more than one county of data.

Following subsections provide a list of feature types and their relationship to the TIGER/Line product.