Problem reading shapefile with Python ogr-module

Question

Trying to read naturalearthdatas shapefile vers. 4 "ne_110m_admin_0_countries.shp" with the python-ogr.modul I encounter a problem. inspecting the file with the following code-snippet:

counter = 0
for in_feat in in_lyr:
 counter += 1 
 print("Kopiere Geometrie Nr.", counter)
 geom = in_feat.geometry() 
 print(geom)
 if ((geom.GetGeometryCount() > 1) and (geom.GetGeometryName() == "POLYGON")):
 errortext = "FEHLER"
 else:
 errortext =""
 print(anzahl ,":", geom.GetGeometryName(), " Anzahl der Ringe:", geom.GetGeometryCount(),errortext)

I am getting one shape, which looks strange to me . the object nr 26 looks like this:

POLYGON ((16.3449768408952 -28.5767050106977,16.8240173682409 -28.0821615536645,17.2189286638154 -28.3559432919468,17.3874971859515 -28.7835140927298,17.8361519711095 -28.8563778622613,18.4648991228048 -29.0454619280173,19.0021273129111 -28.9724431291889,19.8947343278886 -28.4611048316608,19.8957678565344 -24.7677902157606,20.1657255388272 -24.9179619280008,20.7586092465118 -25.8681364885514,20.6664701677354 -26.4774533017049,20.8896090023717 -26.8285429826959,21.6058960303694 -26.7265337053518,22.1059688656579 -26.2802560360791,22.5795316911806 -25.9794475237081,22.8242712745149 -25.5004586727948,23.3120967953502 -25.2686898739657,23.7335697771227 -25.3901294898516,24.2112667172288 -25.6702157528736,25.0251705258258 -25.7196700985769,25.6646663754377 -25.4868160946697,25.7658488298652 -25.1748454729237,25.9416520525222 -24.6963733863332,26.4857532081233 -24.6163265927131,26.7864066911974 -24.2406906063835,27.1194096208862 -23.5743230119798,28.0172359555253 -22.8277535946591,29.432188348109 -22.0913127580676,29.839036899543 -22.1022164852812,30.3228833350918 -22.2716118303339,30.6598653500671 -22.1515674781199,31.1914091326213 -22.2515096981724,31.6703979835347 -23.6589690080739,31.9305888201243 -24.3694165992225,31.7524084815819 -25.4842839494874,31.8377779477281 -25.8433318010513,31.3331575863979 -25.660190525009,31.0440796241571 -25.7314523251394,30.9496667823599 -26.0226490211042,30.6766085141296 -26.3980783017046,30.6859619483745 -26.7438453101695,31.2827730649133 -27.285879408479,31.8680603370511 -27.1779273414213,32.0716654802811 -26.7338200823049,32.8301204770289 -26.7421916643362,32.5802649268977 -27.4701575660318,32.4621326026785 -28.3010112444206,32.203388706193 -28.7524048804901,31.5210014177789 -29.2573869768463,31.325561150851 -29.4019776343989,30.9017627296253 -29.909956963828,30.6228133481138 -30.4237757301061,30.0557161801428 -31.140269463833,28.9255526059195 -32.1720411109725,28.2197558936771 -32.7719528134489,27.464608188596 -33.2269637997788,26.4194523454928 -33.6149504534262,25.9096643409335 -33.6670402971764,25.7806282895007 -33.9446460914483,25.172861769316 -33.7968514950936,24.6778532243921 -33.9871757952246,23.5940434099346 -33.7944743792082,22.9881889177447 -33.916430759417,22.5741573422222 -33.8640825335053,21.542799106541 -34.2588387997829,20.689052768647 -34.4171753883252,20.0712610205976 -34.795136814108,19.6164050635646 -34.8191663551237,19.1932784359587 -34.4625989723098,18.8553145687699 -34.4443055152785,18.4246431820494 -33.997872816709,18.3774109229346 -34.1365206845481,18.2444991390799 -33.867751560198,18.2500801937674 -33.2814307594144,17.9251904639484 -32.6112907854534,18.2479097836112 -32.4291313616246,18.2217615088715 -31.6616329892257,17.5669177588689 -30.7257211239875,17.0644161312627 -29.8786410458592,17.0629175147262 -29.87595387138,16.3449768408952 -28.5767050106977),(28.9782625668572 -28.9555966122617,28.5417000668555 -28.6475017229376,28.0743384132078 -28.8514686011936,27.5325110206275 -29.2427108700754,26.9992619158076 -29.87595387138,27.7493970069565 -30.6451058896122,28.1072046241454 -30.545732110315,28.2910693702399 -30.2262167294543,28.8483996925077 -30.0700505510683,29.018415154748 -29.7437655575774,29.3251664568326 -29.2573869768463,28.9782625668572 -28.9555966122617))

it is a POLYGON but has TWO rings ?? It's South Africa by the way.

Strange enough the shapefile is valid, when I check it in QGIS.

Does the Shapefile-format allow POLYGONS with more than one ring? I thought only MULTIPOLYGONS are allowed to have more than one ring.

• user30184: Another ring is a hole inside the outer ring. Totally valid and common case.
• Kurt: @user30184 ok,thanks 2 more questions: 1) ring for the hole should be counter-clockwise, is that right? 2) can multipolygon also contain a part which is a polygon like my example (= a polygon with more than one ring)?
• user30184: Polygon=one outer ring and zero or more inner rings. In shapefiles inner rings should be counterclockwise but all programs do not care, they take the first ring as outer and next ones as inner. Multipolygon contains polygons so they can contain holes as well. The OGC simple feature standard is one source for definitions.

Answer 1

There is no multypolygon and multylinestring in ESRI Shapefile. Only following types are supported: POINT, ARC, POLYGON and MULTIPOINT.

See http://gdal.org/drv_shapefile.html

The mixing polygons and multipolygons are really headache while importing in strict formats like PostGIS.

• Kurt: thanks, I am aware of this, but when reading with pythons ogr-module polygons are "shown" as MULTIPOLYGON and POLYGONS. ...
• user30184: Is that a problem? GDAL gives correct information. Polygons have one outer ring, multipolygons more.