Loading vector data from files

In this section, we will talk about loading vector data from GIS file formats, such as shapefiles, as well as from text files.

We can load vector files by going to Layer | Add Layer | Add Vector Layer and also using the Add Vector Layer toolbar button. If you like shortcuts, use Ctrl + Shift + V. In the Add vector layer dialog, which is shown in the following screenshot, we find a drop-down list that allows us to specify the encoding of the input file. This option is important if we are dealing with files that contain special characters, such as German umlauts or letters from alphabets different from the default Latin ones.

What we are most interested in now is the Browse button, which opens the file-opening dialog. Note the file type filter drop-down list in the bottom-right corner of the dialog. We can open it to see a list of supported vector file types. This filter is useful to find specific files faster by hiding all the files of a different type, but be...