[GIS] Deleting columns/fields from polygon shapefile attribute table

arcgis-10.0arcgis-desktopfields-attributes

I have a polygon shapefile that is loaded with old demographic data in its attribute file, I just received the new data today in xls format. What I want to do is just delete the old demo data from the existing shapefile by selecting the fields in the attribute table and right clicking delete. Then I would do a simple join using the ID numbers for each feature to add the new data from the new table then just export it out as a new shapefile. The problem is that for some reason I can not delete entire columns from the attribute table.

How would you go about stripping the data from this polygon shapefile?

Best Answer

Use ArcToolbox > Data Management Tools > Fields > Delete Field.
Choose your shapefile as the Input Table.
Use the Select All button, then unselect the field(s) you want to keep.
Hit OK.

ArcGIS 10 running on a 64 bit OS has a bug whereby you cannot delete columns using the right-click > delete field operation. Should be fixed in SP1 (I hope).

Related Solutions

[GIS] Invert Deleting multiple fields with delete tool in ArcGIS Desktop

If you stay with the tools, you can first select all the fields then unselect the ones that you want to keep.

You could also create a Python script to do this, but if you don't have a fixed rule and you need to enter the field names manually, this will not help.

import arcpy   

# if you can use a key to identify the fields to remove, then it's solved
fields = arcpy.ListFields(fc) 

# manually enter field names to keep here
# include mandatory fields name such as OBJECTID (or FID), and Shape in keepfields
keepFields = ["OBJECTID", "Shape","fld1","fld3","fld20"]

dropFields = [x.name for x in fields if x.name not in keepFields]
# delete fields
arcpy.DeleteField_management(fc, dropFields)

[GIS] How to delete fields from a Geopackage attribute table

GeoPackage is a SQLIte database, So you can edit the table with a program for manage databases.

Per example, you could to use "DBeaver", or you could to use "SQLite Expert Personal" (freeware).

With SQLite Expert you could to delete and reorder fields.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[GIS] Invert Deleting multiple fields with delete tool in ArcGIS Desktop

[GIS] How to delete fields from a Geopackage attribute table

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