Separating a multipart feature (Explode)

You can use Explode on the Advanced Editing toolbar to separate a selected multipart feature into its individual, component features. This would be useful if you needed to alter the attributes of one of the elements in a multipart feature.

There are also geoprocessing tools available to merge and separate features. The Merge and Multipart To Singlepart geoprocessing tools work on all features in a layer rather than just the selected features.

Steps:

1. Click the Edit tool on the Editor toolbar.
2. Select the multipart feature you want to separate into individual features.
3. Click Explode on the Advanced Editing toolbar.

   The parts of the multipart feature become independent features, with each one being assigned identical attribute values.