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Is bulk conversion from csv to shapefile possible with ogr2ogr? I can do it file by file when I first create dbf file, then using vrt file I create shapefile. But using command

for /R %f in (*.csv) do ogr2ogr -t_srs EPSG:4326 -f "ESRI Shapefile" "%~dpnf.shp" "%f

I am able to get only the dbf and prj file, but not qpj, shp nor shx files. I have hundreds of csv files in one folder I would like to convert to shapefiles, but I'm on half way to achieve this.

Edit
For a single file I first created .dbf file: ogr2ogr -f "ESRI Shapefile" all8.dbf all8.csv

Then, I created all8.vrt file:

<OGRVRTDataSource> <OGRVRTLayer name="all8"> <SrcDataSource>all8.csv</SrcDataSource> <SrcLayer>all8</SrcLayer> <GeometryType>wkbPoint</GeometryType> <LayerSRS>WGS84</LayerSRS> <GeometryField encoding="PointFromColumns" x="Longitude" y="Latitude"/> </OGRVRTLayer> </OGRVRTDataSource>

And finally run: ogr2ogr -f "ESRI Shapefile" all8 all8.vrt

I also tried to replace "all8" in .vrt file with "*" (to create multiple shapefiles using only one .vrt file), but that did'nt work.

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    .qpj files are only created by qgis, not ogr2ogr. Please include your workflow for creating a single shape file. It seems you don't get the geometry information right at the moment.
    – AndreJ
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 10:55
  • You are right about the .qpj file. Thank you for pointing this out. Added single shapefile creation process to my first post.
    – Maicen19
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 12:26
  • Do all your CSV files have similar structure? Could you add one line into your question? Have you read gdal.org/drv_csv.html and how to use X_POSSIBLE_NAMES and Y_POSSIBLE_NAMES open options?
    – user30184
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 12:47
  • I don't see any reference to a vrt file in your batch command line.
    – AndreJ
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 15:56

1 Answer 1

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A modern-enough GDAL can convert CSV files directly into shapefiles. For the test.csv file in the documentation, http://www.gdal.org/drv_csv.html - you can do:

ogr2ogr -s_srs EPSG:4326 -t_srs EPSG:3857 -oo X_POSSIBLE_NAMES=Lon* -oo Y_POSSIBLE_NAMES=Lat*  -f "ESRI Shapefile" test.shp test.csv

to create test.shp (and .dbf et al) from test.csv, converting from EPSG:4326 to EPSG:3857 as it goes.

You seem to be using Windows command syntax to loop over your files, which I dont know, but all you need to change is the destination and source names for each shapefile.

In a unix shell the relevant loop syntax is:

for f in *.csv ; do echo $f ${f%csv}shp ; done

(replace echo with your command, and put "$f" and "${f%csv}shp" where you want the csv and shapefile in the command)

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  • @user30184 Thank you for the link! @Spacedman Thanks to his comments I was able to find a command that works on my Windows: for /R %f in (*.csv) do ogr2ogr -s_srs EPSG:4326 -t_srs EPSG:4326 -oo X_POSSIBLE_NAMES=Lon* -oo Y_POSSIBLE_NAMES=Lat* -f "ESRI Shapefile" "%~dpnf.shp" %f
    – Maicen19
    Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 13:48

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