Open tabular data

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 a number, date, or piece of text. The information displayed in a table comes directly from the attribute information stored with your geographic data.

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)

Add a stand-alone table to a map or scene

A stand-alone table can be added to a map or scene in the same manner as any other layer using one of the three following methods:

  • Drag the table from the Catalog pane into the current view.
  • Right-click the table in the Catalog pane and click Add To Current Map Add To Current Map.
  • On the Map tab, in the Layer group, click Add Data Add Data and browse to the table.

Open a stand-alone or attribute table

Opening the table view of a stand-alone or attribute table allows you to edit values, reorder fields, select or query records, and view related data. More than one table can be open simultaneously. Use any of the following methods to open a table view. You can adjust the project settings to control the position of a table in your project.

  • Right-click a layer in the Contents pane and click Attribute Table Open Table.
  • Select a layer in the Contents pane and press Ctrl+T to open the table view for that layer.
  • Right-click a stand-alone table in the Contents pane and click Open Open Table.
  • To open a table view directly in the selected view, select some features on the map. Right-click the layer in the Contents pane, point to Selection, and click Attribute Table Showing Selection Open Selected.

Interact with the table view

Once you have an open table view, consider the following when interacting with its contents:

  • For tables with large record counts, browsing through the length of the table view uses deferred scrolling. Only the records loaded in the table are listed. This means you can drag quickly down the length of the table instead of scrolling through the records individually.
  • To view properties of a field, hover over the column header.
    • This includes time zone information for a Date field in a web feature layer.
  • Multiple fields can be selected to hide, freeze, rearrange, or delete.
  • Drag the outer edge of a column to resize it.
  • Resize multiple columns at once by dragging the boundary line between two column headers. All remaining columns of the selected set adjust to match the custom width. Optionally, double-click the line separating any two selected field headers that are part of a group of multiple selected fields to adjust the column widths to fit their contents.
  • Fields can be filtered by time, range, or current map extent.
  • Records can be sorted on one or more fields.
  • Right-click the row header (the small blank cell at the beginning of the row) to access the context menu commands to interact with, select, or delete features on the map.
  • Right-click a cell to access the context menu commands for the cell, the row, and the column.
  • Click the navigation buttons at the bottom of the table view to move focus to the first or last record of the table.
  • Click the Menu button Menu to access additional table controls and display options.

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