A table view is a display of attribute information in a tabular format. In the simplest terms, tables are composed of rows and columns, and all rows have the same columns. Rows are commonly known as records, and columns as fields. Each field can store a specific type of data, such as number, date, or text. Rows and columns intersect to form cells that contain a specific value for one field in a record. The information displayed in a table comes directly from the attribute information stored in the data source.
The term table can be used to refer to both attribute and stand-alone tables. Attribute tables contain the nonspatial information about a geographic feature. A stand-alone table is a table of attributes that do not have associated geographic features. You can use a join or relate to connect geographic features to a stand-alone table, such as a fire hydrant location with a tabular list of completed inspections.
In ArcGIS AllSource, you work with tables in views. Two types of table views are available, based on how you open the table. You can open the table view of a layer or stand-alone table from within a map or scene to edit values, select or query records, and view related data. You can also open a table directly from the Catalog pane or a catalog view. This opens a table view designed for data management and review without needing an associated map view open. You can control where on your computer screen a table opens by setting preferences in the User Interface options.
Once open, you can interact with the table view and perform common table tasks, such as the following:
- Select one or more records in the table.
- View all or only the selected records.
- View the related information for a specific or selected group of records.
- Edit the table by changing the value in an individual cell.
- Sort records in one or more fields.
- Hide fields that you don't readily need to save space and improve readability.
- Filter fields by time, range, or current map extent when the table is opened from a map or scene.
- Freeze a column to keep it visible as you scroll horizontally.
- Format the appearance of numeric and date fields.
- Find a value in the table and replace all or part of it with a new value.
Supported tabular formats
The following tabular data sources are supported:
- Geodatabase
- Database
- Feature layer attribute table
- dBASE
- Microsoft Excel
- Text, ASCII, and comma-separated values files (.csv)
Importance of ObjectID
An ObjectID is a unique, not null, system-managed value that contains the row ID number for each record in the table. ObjectIDs are necessary for managing data.
Most data sources provide an ObjectID field with their tabular data. Tables without ObjectIDs, also referred to as non-OID tables, have limitations. A Microsoft Excel file is an example of a non-OID table. In ArcGIS AllSource, non-OID tables contain read-only tabular data that cannot be modified in a table view.
To edit non-OID tables, the best practice is to create a stand-alone database table by doing one of the following:
- Use the Table To dBASE or Copy Rows tool to convert tables so you can use them in ArcGIS AllSource. Alternatively, use the Export Table tool to control the output location.
- For data with spatial information, use the XY Table To Point tool to create a point feature class based on the x- and y-coordinates defined in a table.
- For Excel tables, use the Excel To Table tool to create a point feature class based on the x- and y-coordinates defined in a table.