Fields are the components that provide structure for a table. Tables form the foundation of geographic data and are the fundamental building blocks of any data model. Tables are a collection of information, such as a list of building owners, employees, or customer information. Layers in a map, such as city streets, buildings, or address points, are essentially tables that include information about the geometry and location of those features.
Tabular information consists of rows and columns, all rows having the same columns. In ArcGIS, rows are referred to as records and columns are referred to as fields. Each field in a table can store a specific type of data, such as a number, date, or piece of text. Fields form the attribute information for each layer in the map or stand-alone table.
The image below shows the attribute table for the Campus Buildings layer from the Campus Editing data model. Each row in the table represents a building on the Esri campus, and all of the buildings share a set of common fields. In this example, each building has common fields for name, size, operating hours, and so on.
Fields view
In ArcGIS Pro, you can view and manage the fields of a layer or table in the fields view. This allows you to model the attributes that are shared by a collection of features or objects in a table. In the fields view, you can edit the fields and their properties, delete fields, and create new ones.
- To open the fields view for a feature layer, highlight the layer whose fields you'd like to view in the Contents pane. This displays the Feature Layer tab set.
- On the Data tab, you will find the Data Design group containing the Fields, Subtypes, and Domains buttons. These are your tools for working with a data model.
- Click the Fields button to open the fields view, which displays the layer's fields in a tabular arrangement.
Below you can see the fields view for the Building layer. The fields view lists the fields from that layer and has columns to display the properties of those fields.
There are many data modeling workflows in the fields view for creating, deleting, and modifying fields.
Learn more about how to create, delete, and modify fields of a layer or table
Field properties for the layer
Each field, or column, in a table has properties that describe its contents and how the data in it should be displayed. You can view and, in some cases, edit the field properties in fields view. These settings in the fields view are used to determine how attributes will be shown in ArcGIS Pro, including in the attribute table window, in the pop-up window, and when editing in the Attributes pane.
You can set the following properties for fields in the layer:
| Property | Description | How to set |
|---|---|---|
Visible | Show or hide a field. | In the Visible column, check the check box to turn field visibility on or off. To turn visibility on or off for all fields, check the check box in the column header. If one or many rows are selected, double-click a check box, or hold the Shift or Ctrl key and single-click to turn visibility on or off for all selected rows. |
Read Only | Determine whether a field is editable. | In the Read Only column, check the check box to turn field editability on or off. To turn editability on or off for all fields, check the check box in the column header. If one or many rows are selected, double-click a check box, or hold the Shift or Ctrl key and click to turn editability on or off for all selected rows. |
Alias | Set a descriptive name for the field. | Click the Alias column for the field row and enter a field alias. |
Highlight | Turn on highlighting for a field to accentuate the field when displayed. | Check or uncheck the box next to the field. To turn all fields on or off, use the check box in the column header. |
Number Format | Set the display formatting for numeric and date field types. | Click the Determine display formatting for numeric and date field types button to open the Number Format dialog box. |
These settings also apply to fields that are appended in a join, although you are only able to edit the joined fields when they are accessed from the origin table.
Note:
Layer properties are only available when the fields view is opened from the layer. If the fields view is opened from the data source (from the Catalog pane), the layer properties are not shown. If you open the fields view from the layer, you can use the Current Layer drop-down menu in the fields view to switch from the layer properties view to the data source view. The data source view displays field properties that are at the feature class level, such as the alias for a field, or the field name.