The TIGER/Line shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) System (MTS). The MTS represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line shapefile is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation.

The Address Range/Feature Name Relationship File contains a record for each address range/linear feature name relationship. The purpose of this relationship file is to identify all street names associated with each address range. An edge can have several feature names; an address range located on an edge can be associated with one or any combination of the available feature names (an address range can be linked to multiple feature names). The address range is identified by the address range identifier (ARID) attribute that can be used to link to the Address Range Relationship File (addr.dbf). The linear feature name is identified by the linear feature identifier (LINEARID) attribute which can be used to link to the Feature Names Relationship File (featnames.dbf).