Edit feature attributes

The Attributes pane contains tools for interactively selecting features and editing their attributes and related records. Click the feature or record entity in the selection view to show its fields. This pane is available on the ribbon, on the Edit tab.

• Additional commands are available when you right-click a feature, a layer, or a field.
• To follow a hyperlink stored in a field, press Ctrl and click the text in the field.
• If a feature class or a related table for a selected feature is not in the project, a warning icon appears next to the feature or record entity. You can choose to click the selected feature or record entity and edit the attributes directly or right-click and add the feature class or table to the map.
• Alternatively, to view and edit values in a tabular view for all features in a layer , right-click the layer in the Contents pane and click Attribute Table .

The tabs appearing on the pane are described in the following table:

Tab	Description
Selection	Edit feature attributes and related records.
Layers	Step through features on a layer.

Edit attributes and related records

Select the features in the map. In the pane selection view, click the feature to show its attribute fields. If the feature contains attributes in a related table, expand the feature and click the record entity.

Note:

If an active editing tool is filtering the current selection, a notification appears in the pane. To reset the selection, press Esc to disable the active tool or click the Select tool and make a new selection.

1. On the ribbon, click the Edit tab. In the Selection group, click Attributes .
2. In the Attributes pane, click the Selection tab.

   

3. Click the Select tool and select the features containing the attribute values you are editing. You can select one or more features.
   • To refine the selection, right-click a feature in the selection view, and click Unselect or Only Select This .

     

4. Click the Attributes tab to show the attribute fields for the selected features.

   

   • To edit a selected attribute that is in an attributed relationship table, click the Attributed Relationship tab.
5. Check or uncheck Auto Apply

   Checked	Press Enter or click another field to apply changes to a field value.
   Unchecked	Click Apply to apply changes to a field value. Click Cancel to restore the last saved value.

6. In the selection view, click the selected feature or record entity to show the attribute fields in the pane.
   • If a warning icon appears next to the feature or record entity, click the selected record to show the attribute fields in the pane or right-click and click Add To Map .
   • To edit the same attribute fields for multiple selected features, press Ctrl and click the features.
   • To edit the same attribute fields for a range of selected features, press Shift and click the first and last feature in the selection.
   • To edit the same attribute fields for all selected features on a layer, click the layer name.
7. Click a field to change the value.
   • To set a field to Null that accepts null values, right-click and click Set To '<Null>'.

     

   • To change a date field using the calendar, click the field and click Calendar . To enter the current date and time, click Today.

     

8. If Auto Apply is checked, click Apply.

   If you do not apply or cancel your edits before switching to another map or scene, you are prompted to apply or cancel any uncommitted attribute edits.

   

   Tip:

   If you choose to turn this message off, you can turn the change prompt on in project settings for editing.

Find and correct nonvalid values

To find and correct nonvalid attribute values, right-click the layer in the selection view and click Select Only Invalid Objects . This command is available with layers for which a data rule exists including attribute rules and other geodatabase behaviors such as attribute domains.

Note:

By default, if a value breaks an attribute rule, a notification appears at the top of the pane showing the rule that is preventing your changes.

If your workflow requires the ability to override values, such as domain values or fields that do not allow nulls or empty field values, turn attribute validation off.

Edit subtypes and domain values

To edit a subtype or attribute domain values, click the field drop-down arrow and choose a value. If the subtype field is symbolizing the layer, click the Choose Symbol Class button to change the symbology.

If the default attribute values defined by the new subtype are different than the current default values, the following warning appears:

Click Yes to apply the default attribute values defined by the new subtype. If a field does not have a default value associated with it for the new subtype, its value remains unchanged. Click No to preserve the existing feature attribute values.

Tip:

If your workflow requires you to always apply the default values, you can turn the subtype warning off and automatically apply the default values defined by the new subtype for all subtype changes.

Field color codes

If a field or a field border is highlighted, the color indicates a specific status or how the field value is defined. The color codes are described in the following table.

Attribute field color codes

Field color	Description
Orange	Subtype field.
Purple	Symbolizes the layer.
Yellow	The Highlight property is enabled in the Fields view.
Grey border	The field is read-only and can't be edited.
Green border	The field is being actively edited.

Edit contingent values

To edit contingent values, click the field and choose a value on the drop-down list. If Auto-update is enabled in the attribute table, the values in participating contingent fields automatically update when a unique combination is encountered.

Contingent values act as loosely constrained look up fields for attribute domains. The participating fields are defined as a group where specifying a value in one field determines the next set of valid choices for other fields.

Tip:

To create and manage contingent values open the source attribute table and click the Data tab on the ribbon. In the Design group, click Contingent Values .

1. On the ribbon, click the Edit tab. In the Selection group, click Attributes .
2. In the Attributes pane, click the Selection tab and select the feature.
   1. Click the Select tool and select a feature defined with contingent attribute values.
   2. In the selection view, click the feature.
3. Click the Attributes tab.
4. Uncheck Auto Apply.
5. Click a field and choose a value on the drop-down list. The specified value filters the lists of values in other contingent fields to show valid combinations. Incorrect values highlight the field with a vertical yellow bar and show a warning message in the pane.

   The best practice is to start at the top of the value hierarchy and choose values in subsequent fields that are valid choices. Additionally, you can click the controls described in the following table that appear in drop-down lists depending on the available combinations.

   Show Matches	Show all valid choices for the field based on its primary field value. This is the default setting. This control appears at the top of the drop-down list when you click Show All.
   Partial Matches	Show domain values grouped according to matched fields. This control allows you to create partial matches that are still valid combinations with a subset of the contingent fields for the row. Other fields may require further editing until a valid combination is achieved.
   Show All	Show all domain values for the field including retired and non-valid combinations. This control allows you to create a completely different combination of values. This control appears at the bottom of the drop-down list when you click Show Matches.

   

6. Click Apply to apply your changes.

Copy and paste attributes using the clipboard

Right-click a feature in the selection view to copy and paste attributes between features. By default, values are pasted to matching field names with matching data types or to fields defined by the current field mapping settings.

Note:

To transfer attributes between features by clicking the source and destination features in a map, use the Transfer Attributes tool .

1. On the ribbon, click the Edit tab. In the Selection group, click Attributes .
2. In the Attributes pane, click Select , select the features, and expand the selection in the pane.
3. Right-click the feature containing the attributes you want to copy, and click Copy Attributes .

   

4. Right-click the destination feature or layer, and click Paste Attributes .
5. If Auto Apply is turned off, click Apply.

View and edit geometry

Click the Geometry tab to view the coordinate values for the selected feature. To edit feature geometry, click an editing tool on the toolbar.

Tip:

To change the display units, click the coordinate display arrow at the bottom of the current map or scene view.