Feature Class

Detailed Description

Features are composed of both a geometry (point, polyline, or polygon) and attributes. The geometry represents the location and shape of the real-world entity; the attributes (key-value pairs) represent the fields and values that describe the entity. Examples of features include roads, fire hydrants, and property boundaries. Applications can access features from a feature layer or a feature collection to visualize the feature's geographic and attribute information, execute spatial queries, perform analyses, or make edits to the feature's data directly. Feature attribute values can be changed, but attribute definitions cannot be added, deleted, or modified.

Features are typically persisted in a data source (such as a feature service, geodatabase, shapefile, GeoJSON file, or GeoPackage) and have a common attribute schema. Features can also be stored directly in a feature collection in a map or scene. A feature collection groups logically related tables of features that may have different schema, geometry types, and symbology. See FeatureCollectionLayer for more information.

Feature is the base class for ArcGISFeature. ArcGIS features are stored in ArcGIS specific data sources such as GeodatabaseFeatureTable and ServiceFeatureTable.

Relevant samples:

• Add features (feature service): Add features to a feature layer.
• Add features with contingent values: Create and add features whose attribute values satisfy a predefined set of contingencies.
• Delete features (feature service): Delete features from an online feature service.
• Edit features with feature-linked annotation: Edit feature attributes which are linked to annotation through an expression.
• Feature collection layer: Create a Feature Collection Layer from a Feature Collection Table, and add it to a map.
• Feature layer selection: Select features in a feature layer.
• List related features: List features related to a selected feature.
• Update geometry (feature service): Update a feature's location in an online feature service.
• Viewshed (Geoprocessing): Calculate a viewshed using a geoprocessing service, in this case showing which parts of a landscape are visible from points on mountainous terrain.