[postgis-users] TIGER Help/Clarification

[Stephen Woodbridge]

Bo Coughlin wrote:
> That's for sure...huge amount.  So, the feature tables 
> should be used as a reference? Meaning it should not actually be loaded but used as 
> a "reference" to make the necessary foreign key index within the shape 
> tables? - thanks very much - bo

I think there is no simple one answer fits all cases solution. You have 
to think about what you want as an end result based on how you plan to 
use the data once you have it loaded, then work from the source data 
files to that end result or vica versa.

What are your goals regarding the Tiger data?
What kind of questions will you need to get answered using this data?
What queries will you be making?
etc.

-Steve

> On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Stephen Woodbridge 
> <woodbri at swoodbridge.com <mailto:woodbri at swoodbridge.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Bo Coughlin wrote:
> 
>         Using the TIGER shp files is a no brainer (feel free to
>         disagree). My question is on the relationship tables, and
>         setting up the DB in postGIS.  What role do these tables play?
>          While it seems self explanatory in that the foreignkey
>         relationship etc. is outlined in a very nice diagram by the
>         census - I am still a little lost on how to integrate into the
>         DB - do I import those create the foreign key relationships
>         between them and then do the same with each shp. file?
>         This is definitely a noob question, but I am simply struggling
>         with the exact relationship of these tables with the shp files -
>          there doesn't appear to be a foreign key relationship between
>         the shp's - but there does between shp and relationship files.
>          Any help much appreciated. - thanks, bo
> 
> 
>     The Tiger shapefiles are a dump of the Census relational data model.
>     You can reload all the data you need and then use the relationships
>     described to create foreign keys or to create views or new tables.
> 
>     There are a lot of files and tables to deal with, so do not expect
>     it to be trivial especially if you want to load all the data.
> 
>     -Steve W
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