Python/Pandas - long strings trimmed during import of Shapefile to GeoDataFrame

Question

I have observed that during importing of Shapefile format to Pandas DataFrame (using geopandas package) columns with long values (over 256 char) are being trimmed:

import geopandas as gpd
import pandas as pd

shp_file = gpd.read_file(observations.shp)

Is there a way to bypass this limitation?

Answer 1

It is not the fault of import to GeoDataFrame. The Shapefile maximum field width is 254. It is a limitation of the dBase format.