Need to Query Shape Files

[Harry T. Jones]

hello all,

this is my first time posting as i just joined the list.
i'm researching a means to query data provided in shape files. i've been
able to view the data files in arcexplorer but i'm not sure how i would
query this online via php/perl. i don't need to show maps, but i do need to
be able to get at the data that is associated with polygons in the files.

for example, district information seems to be somehow associated with the
longitudes/lattitudes that define the polygons contained in the shape files.
what i need to be able to do is, given an address or zip code, locate the
district that contains that address in the data files.

so far i've been considering querying a mysql table to get the lat/lon
coordinates for a zip code, then querying the shape files for the
district...that's the big gray area...i don't have a clue...should i convert
this data to some other format instead of trying to query the shape files?
should i somehow use a map server to get the information?

any helpful information you can give me would be greatly appreciated. this
is my first time working with gis and i'm not finding it easy to get
information.

even if you can just point me in the direction to get a better understanding
of how this all works i appreciate it.

oh yeah, the data i'm trying to work with is at
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/dwndistricts.html#pod




thanks in advance!