Shapefile not reflecting DBF?

[nschwall]

I am trying to load in a shapefile, however, it loads in empty. The DBF file is fully populated. I'm not sure where to start on trouble shooting this, or if this indicates that my shapefile and dbf are somehow not talking to each other? 

[DanPatterson]

check the folder that contains the shapefile, it has at least 3 parts, a *.shp, *.shx, and *.dbf

if you are missing bits, or it is still in a zip file, then correct from the source or unzip 

[curtvprice]

A situation I've seen is students download a zipfile but do not extract it and open it (inside the zip) in Windows since the OS lets you navigate into a zipfile. To access in ArcGIS you need all the pieces so be sure and extract the zipfile before you try to open it in arcgis.