# How does one access ESRI File GeoDatabases (\*.gdb)?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** geo\
**Created:** [January 19, 2024, 4:51am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998 "2024-01-19T04:51:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PoachedEggs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dc4da7/32.png) [@PoachedEggs](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/PoachedEggs)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 4:51am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998/1 "2024-01-19T04:51:00Z")

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Greetings, everyone. I am picking up Julia as a second programming language, so bear with me. The JuliaGeo group is making great strides to carve a path for geospatial analytics using Julia. I am excited to see what comes next from the team. That said, I often work with ESRI file geodatabase as part of the field that I work in. In Python, I know that (provided one has the FGDB.dll) developers can access these files using GDAL. ArchGDAL is still relatively new, but is there a plan to support file geodatabases to access vector or raster data? Are there any alternative packages that allow Julia users to access this data?

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**Author:** ![asinghvi17](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/asinghvi17/32/8272_2.png) [@asinghvi17](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/asinghvi17)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2024, 9:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998/2 "2024-06-08T21:36:51Z")

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If you’re using JuliaGeo packages, then GeoDataFrames.jl should be able to read `.gdb` files pretty easily!

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**Author:** ![monty](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/monty/32/44234_2.png) [@monty](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/monty)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998/3 "2024-12-11T14:00:35Z")

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Can you provide an example code? I do not see how GeoDataFrames reads GDB files.

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**Author:** ![alex-s-gardner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/alex-s-gardner/32/30210_2.png) [@alex-s-gardner](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/alex-s-gardner)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998/4 "2024-12-11T16:42:42Z")

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ESRI GeoDataBase files should readable with GDAL.jl and ArchGDAL.jl

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 7:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998/5 "2024-12-11T19:02:23Z")

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And GMT.jl

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**Author:** ![asinghvi17](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/asinghvi17/32/8272_2.png) [@asinghvi17](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/asinghvi17)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998/6 "2024-12-12T18:04:22Z")

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The same way you read anything eith GeoDataFrames - `GeoDataFrames.read(filename)` should do it.

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**Author:** ![alex-s-gardner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/alex-s-gardner/32/30210_2.png) [@alex-s-gardner](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/alex-s-gardner)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-does-one-access-esri-file-geodatabases-gdb/108998/7 "2024-12-18T00:33:46Z")

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.gdb files also contain raster data so not sure GeoDataFrames will work… I searched for an example dataset but didn’t have any luck.