Eliminate (Data Management)

ArcGIS Pro 3.3 | | Help archive

Available with Advanced license.

Summary

Eliminates polygons by merging them with neighboring polygons that have the largest area or the longest shared border. Eliminate is often used to remove small sliver polygons that are the result of overlay operations, such as those performed by Intersect and Union tools.

Illustration

Eliminate tool illustration

Usage

  • Features that will be eliminated are determined by a selection applied to a polygon layer. The selection must be determined in a previous step using the Select Layer by Attribute tool or the Select Layer by Location tool, or by querying a layer in a map.

  • The Eliminate tool may not eliminate all selected features, depending on your dataset. Selected features cannot be merged with a neighboring selected feature. For example, a selected feature that is surrounded by other selected features, or only borders on other selected features cannot be merged. To eliminate the selected features that were not merged, select the features again and run the tool again.

    A selected feature that has no neighboring features with a common boundary cannot be merged.

  • The Input Layer parameter must include a selection; otherwise, the tool will fail.

  • The Exclusion Expression and Exclusion Layer parameters are not mutually exclusive and can be used together to give full control over what is eliminated.

Parameters

LabelExplanationData Type
Input Layer

The layer with the polygons that will be merged with neighboring polygons.

Feature Layer
Output Feature Class

The feature class to be created.

Feature Class
Eliminating polygon by border
(Optional)

Specifies whether the selected polygon will be merged with a polygon with the longest shared border or the largest area.

  • Checked—The selected polygon will be merged with the neighboring polygon with the longest shared border. This is the default.
  • Unchecked—The selected polygon will be merged with the neighboring polygon with the largest area.
Boolean
Exclusion Expression
(Optional)

An SQL expression that will be used to identify features that will not be altered.

SQL Expression
Exclusion Layer
(Optional)

An input polyline or polygon feature class or layer that defines polygon boundaries, or portions thereof, that will not be eliminated.

Feature Layer

Licensing information

  • Basic: No
  • Standard: No
  • Advanced: Yes

Related topics