Create IDs from columns Tool
❖The Create IDs from columns tool allows you to create an ID column in your data from already existing columns in your data which have discrete values, it can be found over here in your Spatial pane( It is a little icon which is a blue circle with a white star):
For example, you may have an existing column in your data which is called Customer Name, the tool can then use this column to generate unique IDs for each different customer name.
❖Before using the tool make sure the appropriate layer that you would like to create the ID column for is highlighted in your layer description box:
❖Clicking on the tool brings up the following dialogue box:
❖Firstly, you will choose which column/s in your data you would like to use in the ID calculation, here I chose just one column:
❖Then in the ID Field dropdown box you can choose an existing column in your data where you would like the IDs to populate, or you can choose for a new column to be created for the IDs by clicking the New ID field button:
If you have chosen to create a new ID field then the following box will come up, enter the name of the new field then click OK:
❖Finally, to compute the IDs, click OK:
You will get this message telling you its done, click OK:
❖You can then view the resulting IDs in the layer data grid for that layer by right clicking on the layer then selecting View Data:
❖You can of course also choose for the calculation to be done on more than one column in your data in which case the tool will take the discrete values in each column into account when creating the IDs.