How to export data as a shapefile without the mapping toolbox?

I have a polygon definied by a series of longitude and latitude coordinates.

E.g.

lat = [56.182254, 56.185120, 56.163141, 56.165244];

lon = [-6.3276100, -6.2664986, -6.2664986, -6.3121605];

Is there a way to export this polygon as a shapefile in matlab R2021? I do not have the mapping toolbox so cannot use shapewrite.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

[Moksh]

Hi Emma,

I understand that you don’t have access to the “Mapping Toolbox” in MATLAB and you want to export the defined polygon as a shapefile.

You can try using the “fopen” function in MATLAB to create a shapefile. Then the shapefile can be edited using the “fprintf” function and exported using without the use of mapping toolbox.

Here is an example code for this:

% Define the polygon coordinates
lat = [56.182254, 56.185120, 56.163141, 56.165244];
lon = [-6.3276100, -6.2664986, -6.2664986, -6.3121605];

% Create a new shapefile file
fid = fopen('my_polygon.shp', 'w');

% Write the polygon coordinates to the shapefile file
fprintf(fid, '%.8f %.8f\n', lon, lat);

% Close the shapefile file
fclose(fid);

Here the “%.8f” represents the format specifier which tells the “fopen” function to write the polygon coordinates with 8 places of precision, separated by a space and a new line. This can be updated as per the requirements.

For more information about the used functions please refer to the following documentation:

• "fopen" - https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fopen.html
• "fprintf" - https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fprintf.html
• "fclose" - https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fclose.html

I hope this information helps resolve the issue.

Best Regards,

Moksh Aggarwal