PCCF Example:
The files obtained from Statistics Canada will not be in a format
recognizable to ArcGIS. The data will come as a fixed record length
file and will need to be converted to a readable database. The easiest
way to format the file will be to convert it into a DBF IV file
using Excel.
Your data will look something like this:
After downloading the file, open it in Excel. Excel will not immediately
open the file, it will guide you through the text to columns wizard
to convert the data into a readable format. You will want to choose
the fixed width option within the text wizard.
To find the record layout for the data (i.e. the width) look through
the reference guide that is associated with the downloaded data.
As directed, create break lines to separate the data. You will only
need the following data; Postal Code, Lat, Long, SLI, PR, Birth_Date,
Ret_Date.
All other data you do not need, you can choose not to import it
by selecting the non desired columns and checking off ‘do
not import column (skip)’. Once all the desired data is ready
to import click finish and your data will be separated.
Before saving the file, you will need to add titles. Insert a row
above the data and name the columns accordingly. Your data is now
ready to be saved. Go to ‘Save As’ under the file menu
and save the file as a DBF IV file. Make sure when you are saving
the file that the cell that is currently selected has data in it,
otherwise the saved file will be blank.
NOTE:
- The latitude and longitude are in decimal degrees.
- There are some postal codes in the data that have multiple instances
based on their birth and retirement dates. Active postal codes
have a retirement date of 19000001.
- The PR (province) is important when downloading the entire PCCF
file, however Statistics Canada releases PCCF’s based on
each province so it is not really important in this case.
- The SLI (Single Link Indicator) can be used to establish a one-to-one
relationship between postal codes and dissemination areas, blocks,
or block-faces. A SLI value of 1 indicates the best or only record
for the postal code. A SLI value of 0 indicates an additional
record for a postal code.
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