Table mode

An attribute table of any of the layers displayed in the layer list can be displayed in the view pane. To be able to display a table a layer needs to be selected in the layer list.

 

Once the layer is selected it will be colored in a blue band:

 

 

The viewpane will show the specific map:

 

 

To show the selected layer's attribute table, select the "Table" button.

 

 

The attribute table of the selected data layer will now be shown in the view pane.  This is how it will look:

 

To add new data to an existing table, the user will need to create a new field.  The following section explains how to create a new field in the table:

 

After highlighting the appropriate layer in the List of Layers, goto the Table mode to display the attribute table of the layer.

 

 

A sub-menu will appear where the user can select the "Create Field" menu item:

 

 

A new dialog box will appear where the user needs to specify the name and type of field to be created.  The user can first add the new field name:

 

 

The field type needs to be selected from a dropdown box.  There are three types of fields to be created:

 

 

The user can now select the appropriate field type

 

 

Next the field length needs to be defined.  The default value is 80 characters but can be changed if required.

 

 

After clicking on the OK button,  the new field will be added in the attribute table

 

 

The next step is to populate the field with data with either the Field Calculator or the Spatial Analysis Tools.

When communication with the server is slow an causes a break in communication,  the user can reload the table.

The user can sort the records in a field in either Ascending or Descending order.  To access the Field Column tools, the user should select a specific field in the table and click on the dropdown arrow at the right of the field name.  The dropdown list will appear and the user can sort the records.

The user can choose which fields/columns in the attribute table needs to be visible on the screen.  To access the Columns button, the user should select a specific field in the table and click on the dropdown arrow at the right of the field name.  The dropdown list will appear and the user can click on the Columns menu.  A new dropdown list with all the fields/columns will appear where the user can tick the visibility of each layer on/off.

 

The user always have the option to change the name and type of field whenever necessary.  Click on the Edit Field tool to open the editing dialog box.

 

 

Here the user can change the name and type.

The field type needs to be selected from a dropdown box.  There are three types of fields to be created:

 

Integer - a number, for example: 2

Float - a number with a . (dot), for example: 2.0 or 0.02

String is text, for example both "2" ant "two" are strings, both are just text regardless one of these appearing to be a number for a human who reads it.

 

Integers and floats are for math, strings are for managing text.

 

The user can now select the appropriate field type

 

Next the field length needs to be defined.  The default value is 80 characters but can be changed if required

 

 

After clicking on the OK button,  the field will be changed

The Field Calculator is used for copying fields, concatenating (i.e., combining) strings, performing most mathematical calculations, and entering raw data. The Field Calculator can be used for conditional reclassification, complex mathematical calculations, and extracting geometric and geographic information.

 

The Field Calculator is used to construct SQL expressions to do calculations based on either the Geometry or the current attributes of the selected layer.  By using a combination of Fields, Operators and Functions, an SQL expression can be build to do a specific calculation.  It also allow the user to do general attribute management of the values in each field (e.g. to round a number or split text string in portions)

 

For a detailed description on how to use the Field Calculator, please refer to the Field Calculator section under Data Fusion

 

The Spatial Analysis Toolbox is exactly the same as the Spatial Analysis Toolbox for Spatial Report and can be used in the same way.  The only difference is that the result will be permanently added to the selected field in the attribute table of the selected layer and added to the spatial database.

 

For a detailed description on how to use the Spatial Query tool, please refer to the Spatial Query section under Data Fusion

Statistical analysis is often used to explore your data - for example, to examine the distribution of values for a particular attribute or to spot outliers (extreme high or low values). Having this information is useful when defining classes and ranges on a map, when reclassifying data, or when looking for data errors.  The user can have the statistics of a selected numerical field which will be displayed like the following example.

 

 

 

The summarise function is a very handy tool to aggregate data into a summary table, where records in a field share a specific alphanumerical or classification values. (e.g. Municipal names or codes)

 

The user select the desired field and in the drop down box select Summarise

 

The following dialog box will appear:

 

 

In the Field dropdown box, the user can select any relevant numerical field:

 

 

The next step is to select the aggregation method:

 

 

Once the selection was made, the user can click on the add button and the aggregation method will be added to the right hand list.  The user can delete or add many more fields and methods.

 

 

If all the choices were made, the user can click the okay button to create the summary table and safe it to the hardisk:

 

 

An additional function is to create a chart with the summary table results.  First the user needs to click on the chart tab:

 

 

 The Chart dialog box will open, where the user can select the chart type and all the fields to be displayed in the chart.  The result will look like this:

 

 

 

 

At any stage the user can delete a field in the attribute table.  Please note that once the field is deleted, it cannot be retrieved back.