topic Re: Attribute table not displaying all records... in Data Management Questions

Attribute table not displaying all records...

TheoFaull — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 10:09:28 GMT

I'm in ArcMap, viewing the attribute table for a point feature class...

'0 out of *2000 Selected'... Why has it put this limit on the attribute table? There should be 25,000 ish records.

On the map itself, 25,000 points do display/draw however.

I do have a definition query but this should exclude around about 500 records only..

This issue only occurs with File Geodatabase feature classes. Sourced to a shapefile copy of the dataset, this issue doesn't happen.

What's going on? Lot's of questions I've had recently!

ArcGIS Desktop 10.4

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

JayantaPoddar — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 10:18:00 GMT

Did you see the * mark preceding the value of 2000? That means there are more records than that value. For faster rendering, it has just queried for 2000. You could Select All (Table Options) to see the total number of records | or just scroll down to see more records.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

TheoFaull — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 10:25:44 GMT

Yes clicking select all does show the total number, however I'm still not able to browse the attribute table. I want to scroll down to the bottom. But the 'bottom' of the table is still record no.2000:

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

JayantaPoddar — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 10:29:13 GMT

Check the FID (or OID field) to check if the last value is of Record#2000 or Record#25951.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

TheoFaull — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 10:42:43 GMT

It was record #2000 (well actually it was #2048. So it's been limited to 2048 all this time)

Anyway, I've found two work arounds

1. Right click a column (preferrably an ID column) and click Sort Ascending.

2. Click the 'move to end of table' button:

These are only workarounds however, there needs to be an option to disable this attribute table limitation.

If I close the attribute table and open it up again, the records are limited once more to 2000 (2048). Argh!

jayanta.poddar‌

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

TheoFaull — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 10:46:46 GMT

Annoyingly, with most of the data hidden in this way, I can't use the Find button to search for any records after #2048.

I believe the search function should open up the rest of the table...

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

ManviLather1 — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 13:39:49 GMT

Hello,

Could you please test this issue with ArcMap 10.5 and confirm if the issue is reproducible.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

TheoFaull — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 14:58:05 GMT

I'm afraid I don't have 10.5 installed. Just 10.4. Also I can't download and install 105 without going through IT to gain access, and it would overwrite my 10.4 installation. Which I don't want.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

JoshuaBixby — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:19:36 GMT

The cause is the definition query. This behavior has been around for many versions, I suspect back to 9.x or earlier, and it still exists at 10.5. If you put a definition query on a data set, with or without an index on the field, ArcMap will only retrieve 2000 records initially from a file geodatabases. If my memory serves me, ArcMap did the same with personal geodatabases regardless of having a definition query in place. I have seen the same behavior with shape files but the record cutoff is more than 25,000. I can't remember exactly what the cutoff is, but it is quite a bit larger than from file geodatabase.

Seeing this behavior has been around for so long, and ArcMap isn't the future of desktop GIS with Esri, I don't suspect they will address the issue. That said, one never knows, so you could post an ArcGIS Idea or submit a formal enhancement request through your organization.

Interestingly enough, I don't see this behavior in ArcGIS Pro.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

TheoFaull — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 09:58:28 GMT

Something I found:

Removing the definition query changes the figure at the bottom of the attribute table from '0 out of *2000 Selected' to the complete version- '0 out of 26455 Selected'.

However, when you scroll down, you are still limited to viewing the first 2000 or so. The scroll bar stops. This can't be intentional, and looks a bit buggy.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

JoshuaBixby — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 14:11:30 GMT

I hadn't really paid attention before, but what you describes makes sense with what I describe above. As someone mentioned earlier, it is an optimization step, i.e., not retrieving all of the records at one time. With file geodatabases without a query definition, it lets you know the total record count, but it still doesn't retrieve all the rows of the table.

What if a table had millions of records? Some do these days. Would you want the software to retrieve all of those records when a table was opened for viewing? So, maybe retrieving all of the records isn't good, but what about more than 2000? That starts the discussion of what is the magic number; 2000, 10000, 50000? The decision to retrieve 2000 records was probably made back in the 8.x days when computers didn't have nearly the storage and performance they do today. Since we don't see the 2000 record issue in Pro, Esri has likely increased that number. What is the new magic number? I don't know.

If you run field calculator, it will calculate on all the records, not just the first 2000 or however many. If you start an edit session, you will see that you can scroll to the bottom of all the records. When opening a table to view rows, it appears to only retrieve 2000 or so at a time for file and personal geodatabases.

I think the software is working as designed, I think you just disagree with how it is designed. There are plenty of aspects of ArcGIS software where I disagree with how Esri has implemented something. Is a failure of design a bug like a failure in function/operation? It is arguable, but the final decision is typically made by the people making the software.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

TheoFaull — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 08:46:49 GMT

All very good points. I can see why they've limited the amount of records. I didn't comprehend that some GDBs could have millions of records!

However, and back to a previous point I made, I still find it a bit strange how to search (find) function will only search the 2000, rather than the whole dataset.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

JoshuaBixby — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 13:50:14 GMT

I see what you are saying about the find functionality. Most people like to interact with database tables the same way they do spreadsheets. Although the experience can be made similar, there are fundamental differences between a database table and spreadsheet, and it can be difficult for software makers to make the experience identical. That said, it might be worth submitting an enhancement or ArcGIS Idea to have the find functionality retrieve all the records to they can be searched.

Re: Attribute table not displaying all records...

RichardFairhurst — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 22:54:31 GMT

if scrolling through the table records is the issue, in addition to the two workarounds mentioned in May 28, 2017 post, you can type a record number in the record number text box that is higher than 2048, like 2050, to move to past the record scrolling sticking point. After that the record set counter may say there are only *4000 records in the table, but the down arrow or scroll bar will scroll the records beyond the 4096th record and adjust the record counter display to the next set of 2000 records until the last record is reached. However, the original workarounds are necessary if the objective is to use the Find functionality on the full record set.