One of the possible shp to xls conversion that is sometimes sought by users is the one used to export coordinates data from ESRI shapefiles (.shp) to Comma Separated Value (.csv) or sometimes MS Excel (.xls, .xlsx) format. It appears this problem is mainly solved with various user made scripts found on ESRI resource sites and forums.
ESRI software usually can export data as .dbf databases which can also be processed to CSV/XLS, however these databases usually contain more than simple coordinate data.
Unfortunately, there is no detailed software record in the database that match this conversion.
SHP
Files with shp extension are also used by Autodesk programs like AutoCAD. These shape files contain geometric shapes for fonts. Should not be confused with ESRI shape files used in GIS software. Same extension, different format.
XLS
Files with xls extension are best known as spreadsheets from Microsoft Excel. A spreadsheet is basically a grid of cells sorted in rows and columns. Each cell can contain text, numeric or formula data. Excel XLS spreadsheets can be opened in most other similar programs, such as OpenOffice.org Calc.
