An overview of the Feature Class toolset

The Feature Class toolset provides a set of tools that perform basic feature class management.

A feature class is a collection of features with the same type of geometry: point, line, polygon, or annotation.

A feature class can be stored with other feature classes in a feature dataset in a geodatabase or as a stand-alone feature class in a geodatabase. A feature class can also be stored in a shapefile.

Tools in the Feature Class toolset

Tool	Description
Append Annotation Feature Classes	Creates a geodatabase annotation feature class or appends to an existing annotation feature class by combining annotation from multiple input geodatabase annotation feature classes into a single feature class with annotation classes.
Create Feature Class	Creates an empty feature class in an enterprise or file geodatabase; in a folder, it creates a shapefile.
Create Unregistered Feature Class	Creates an empty feature class in a database or enterprise geodatabase. The feature class is not registered with the geodatabase.
Integrate	Analyzes the coordinate locations of feature vertices among features in one or more feature classes. Those that fall within a specified distance of one another are assumed to represent the same location and are assigned a common coordinate value (in other words, they are colocated). The tool also adds vertices where feature vertices are within the x,y tolerance of an edge and where line segments intersect.
Recalculate Feature Class Extent	Recalculates the XY, Z, and M extent properties of a feature class based on the features in the feature class.
Set Feature Class Split Model	Defines the behavior of a split operation on a feature class.