Understanding how to find and view records in tables

The ability to search through and find the data you are looking for is important. In the attribute table, there are controls for navigating between records and the Find command for searching for specific values in the table.

You can use the buttons at the bottom of the Table window to move to the next, previous, first, or last record in the table. If you know the specific record number, you can type that in as well. In addition, keyboard and mouse shortcuts allow you to quickly navigate through records in the table and interact with the map from the table. For example, you can right-click a record and flash or identify a feature on the map or zoom and pan to it.

Finding records in a table

When you want to find a record in a table that matches some numeric value or text string, you can search the table for that value in the selected fields or the entire table. Depending on the type of field—text or numeric—you have three different types of searches:

• Any part
• Whole field
• Start of field

Numeric fields are always searched using the whole field. If you're searching a text field, you can search for any part of the text string or the start of the field that matches the text you enter into the Find dialog box. The Find dialog box also gives you the option of searching up, down, or in all directions from the current position in the table.

Occasionally, you have to look for records in a table that contain specific text or numbers. By default, the Find command tries to match your text to any part of the table's values. The text "San" would be found in Pleasant and in San Juan. If you choose Start of Field from the Match list on the Find dialog box, Pleasant will not be found. To find all instances of the exact text "San Juan", choose Whole Field from the Match list. You can search for numbers in the same way you search for text.

When looking for a record, the Find command assumes by default that the current record is at the top of the table and that you want to look down through the remaining records in the table. If the current record is at the bottom of the table, you may want to look up through the table's records instead—click Up in the Search list. If you choose All instead, Find starts from the current record, moves down through the remaining records in the table, then moves from the top of the table back down to the current record.