arcmap merge polygons

[GailMorrison]

Greetings!

I am fairly new to Python.  My dataset contains 29 feature classes - some have more than 1 polygon. If a dataset has more than 1 polygon, then the script needs to merge the dataset's polygons + keep all attributes.  Any ideas?

Thx! Gail in Alaska

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Dissolve....

Dissolve—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop 

but keeping all the attributes isn't going to happen since you only have one table record per feature.

I would recommend against just having a multipart feature dataset because at some stage you are going to want single part features.  If you must... keep both dataset.