Interactive Selections & Other Selection Basics
Credits: L. Meisterlin with Moses Levich, Thiago Lee, and Erik Strand (2021)
Included in this tutorial
Interactive Selection within Map View, including the Selection Tool
Modifying the current selection
Clearing the current selection
Interactive Selection within the Attribute Table
Zooming to selected features
Isolating selected records
Software version in examples: ArcGIS Pro 2.8.2
Tutorial Data: The tutorial includes demonstration with sample data available here.
Interactive selection includes selecting features (individually or several at a time) through the ArcGIS Pro interface, within a Map View or an Attribute Table.
Interactive Selection Within Map View
Interactive selection in ArcGIS Pro is performed with Select tools which can be accessed in the Map Tab of the ArcGIS Pro interface (in the Main Menu ribbon).
accessing Selection Tools in ArcGIS Pro
Selection Tools (in the Map tab)
With the Select tool active, click on a feature to select it. Shift + click or ctrl + click on additional features to expand the selection. The example below demonstrates interactively selecting features from the Points1_Table1_join feature class from the Standard Data Package (available on the Tutorial Data page).
Features selected within a data frame are simultaneously selected in the attribute table of the corresponding layer. (The number of selected features is also displayed at the bottom of the Attribute Table panel.)
interactively selecting features from a point layer
Select by Rectangle (this is the default Select tool option) allows the selection of groups of features by clicking and dragging in an area.
selecting multiple features from a point layer by clicking and dragging
For additional ways to select features by clicking and dragging, click the dropdown arrow below the Select Tool.
interactive selection area options
The Attributes Pane displays attribute information about features in the current selection. Access the Attributes Pane by clicking the Attributes button within Selection in the Map tab.
accessing attribute information for the current selection
Modifying the current selection
To modify the current selection, in the Main Menu ribbon click the pop-out at the bottom-right of the Selection section, or click through Project > Options > Selection.
Under Selection Combination Mode, choose whether to add additional features to a selection, remove features from the selection, or select a subset of features from within the current selection.
For the Add To, Subtract From, and Select From Current Selection options, standard shortcuts are listed.
selection options
Clearing the current selection
To clear the current selection of features, click the Clear button next to the Select By Location in the Map tab.
clearing selected features
Interactive Selection in the Attribute Table
Interactively select features in an attribute table by clicking on the row number next to desired features. Features selected this way are simultaneously selected in the map view.
Shift + click and ctrl + click can be used to select multiple features at once.
selecting features in the attribute table
Zoom to Selected Features
In the toolbar at the top of the attribute table, click the Zoom to Selection button to focus the map’s extent on the selected features.
zooming to selected features
This toolbar also has buttons for inverting the current selection, clearing selected features, and accessing the Select by Attribute dialogue.
more functions in the Attribute Table toolbar
Show Selected Records
The Show All Records and Show Selected Records buttons are at the bottom of the attribute table.
Clicking on Show Selected Records will hide all unselected features in the attribute table.
the Show Selected Records button