topic Re: Raster Attribute Table Record Limit? in Data Management Questions

Raster Attribute Table Record Limit?

DaveMiller — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:42:42 GMT

Hi folks,

I wonder if any of you out there know what the theoretical limit on the number of records which can be stored in a raster value attribute table is? I am building a series of stepwise combination rasters which may yield in excess of 2 million unique combinations.

I know you can select the option not to build a raster attribute table when the number of unique values is greater than a number you specify (65,536 the default) by going to Tools - Options - Raster Tab - Raster Attribute Table, but I wondered whether there is a limit on the number of records which can be generated, or whether this limit is governed by the size of the attribute table stored on disk (2GB)?

Any input appreciated...

Dave

Re: Raster Attribute Table Record Limit?

JamalNUMAN — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:22:20 GMT

Hi folks,

I wonder if any of you out there know what the theoretical limit on the number of records which can be stored in a raster value attribute table is? I am building a series of stepwise combination rasters which may yield in excess of 2 million unique combinations.

I know you can select the option not to build a raster attribute table when the number of unique values is greater than a number you specify (65,536 the default) by going to Tools - Options - Raster Tab - Raster Attribute Table, but I wondered whether there is a limit on the number of records which can be generated, or whether this limit is governed by the size of the attribute table stored on disk (2GB)?

Any input appreciated...

Dave

Hi Dave,

did you figure out the maximum number of record the attribute table of the raster can have?

thanks

Jamal

Re: Raster Attribute Table Record Limit?

EricRice — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:00:54 GMT

The maximum possible ObjectID value is 2,147,483,648. The ObjectID field is maintained by ArcGIS and guarantees a unique ID for each row in a table. This is the limit of records in a table in theory. However, since raster attribute tables outside of a geodatabase are maintained/created as .dbf files, they are subject to the 2gb limit on disk just like a shapefile's attribute table would be.

Regards,
Eric

Re: Raster Attribute Table Record Limit?

JamalNUMAN — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:22:38 GMT

The maximum possible ObjectID value is 2,147,483,648. The ObjectID field is maintained by ArcGIS and guarantees a unique ID for each row in a table. This is the limit of records in a table in theory. However, since raster attribute tables outside of a geodatabase are maintained/created as .dbf files, they are subject to the 2gb limit on disk just like a shapefile's attribute table would be.

Regards,
Eric

Many thanks for the prompt answer Eric. This is very useful elaboration.

Is this valid in case of the attribute tables of feature classes (point, polyline, polygon)?

What about their maximum number of records and columns that they can take?

Re: Raster Attribute Table Record Limit?

EricRice — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:37:51 GMT

Is this valid in case of the attribute tables of feature classes (point, polyline, polygon)?

What about their maximum number of records and columns that they can take?

Yes, it is valid for feature classes since they use ObjectID too. For additional details on geodatabase limits you can review File geodatabase size and name limits

Re: Raster Attribute Table Record Limit?

JamalNUMAN — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:28:08 GMT

Yes, it is valid for feature classes since they use ObjectID too. For additional details on geodatabase limits you can review File geodatabase size and name limits

Many Thanks Eric. this is quite useful.

best

Jamal