Domain Class/ID editor

Functionality

The domain Class/ID editor allows you to add and edit names, codes and descriptions of classes in a class domain and of IDs in an ID domain. You can also add and edit upper boundary values, names, codes and descriptions of groups in a group domain.

Furthermore, you can:

set the sorting order of domain items in a class or ID domain; this influences for instance the appearance of domain items in a legend, and, if the domain is used as the domain of an attribute table, the order of records in the table;
use Copy and Paste to add certain classes, IDs, or groups from another domain into the current one;
merge all items of another class, ID or group domain into the current one;
when a prefix is available in an ID domain, change the prefix of all IDs that use this prefix in that domain;
delete items from a domain;
print all or selected items of a domain.

To open the domain Class/ID editor:

The easiest ways to open the domain Class/ID editor is to double-click a domain in the Catalog or to double-click a domain in the Layer Management pane in a map window. For other methods, see How to edit a domain.

Parts of the domain editor:

The domain Class/ID editor has a menu bar, a description bar, a toolbar and a context-sensitive menu. In the editor, existing 'Name', 'Code' and 'Description' fields can be directly edited, i.e. without using a dialog box: a first single click selects a domain item, a second single click will allow you to edit that field.

The description bar and the toolbar can be moved and docked along an edge of the window. You can also make them floating. You can hide or show the description bar, the toolbar and the status bar via the commands on the View menu. These settings as well as the size of the window etc. are stored per domain type, i.e. either class, ID, or group, in the registry. The domain class, ID, or group that is closed last thus determines the appearance of any newly opened domain class, ID, or group.

The maximum number of items that can be shown in the Domain Class/ID editor is 100 million.

Parts of domain items in class, ID and group domains:

Names of classes, IDs or groups can have any length you like. By default, the width for a class domain is 15, and for an ID domain 6 characters. You can set the width of a domain Class or ID yourself through the properties of the domain (see also How to view and edit the properties of an object). Names of classes, IDs or groups may contain any character you like, except the % character.

Codes of classes, IDs or groups are usually short texts which are designed to be used as abbreviations of the Names in calculations. In Codes, you can use any characters, except colons : and percentages %.

Mind: In any class, ID or group domain, the complete set of Names and Codes must be unique.

Descriptions of classes and IDs can be longer texts which can be shown in legends.

When you created an ID domain and chose to automatically add a number of (numbered) items, you also specified a short Prefix. The Prefix in such an ID domain is designed to avoid confusion with a value domain. In calculations, the Prefix is considered integrated with the Name of the items.

In a group domain, the Upper Boundary Values determine to which group the values of a value map will be assigned after using the Slicing operation or the CLFY function in MapCalc or TabCalc.

Tip: When using class names, IDs, or codes in MapCalc or TabCalc expressions, you must enclose the class names, IDs, or codes in "double quotes".

Using the domain editor

In the remainder of this topic, the word 'class' can also be applied to IDs and groups.

To add new class names:

open the Edit menu and select the Add Item command, or
click the Add Item button in the toolbar, or
select an item in the domain editor, click the right-mouse button and choose Add Item from the context-sensitive menu, or
press the Ins key on your keyboard.

The Add Item dialog box appears: type a new class Name, and optionally a Code and a Description. When editing a group domain, the Add Group dialog box appears: you also have to specify an Upper Boundary Value.

To edit a class name:

double-click a domain item,
select an item, and:
- open the Edit menu and select the Edit Item command, or
- click the Edit Item button in the toolbar, or
- click the right-mouse button, and choose Edit Item from the context-sensitive menu, or
- press the Enter key on your keyboard.

The Edit Item dialog box appears in which you can change the class Name, Code or Description. When editing a group domain, the Edit Group dialog box appears in which you also change the Upper Boundary Value.

To directly edit a Name, Code or Description of a class, i.e. to skip any dialog boxes, you can also:

single click a domain item (the record is selected), and
single click the Name, Code or Description field in the selection.

The field is editable.

When you selected multiple items and obtain the Edit Item dialog box, you can merely modify the Description of the selected items.

To sort class names:

Class names can be sorted by Name, by Code and Manually.

To sort items by Name (or by Code):

open the Edit menu and select the Sort by Name (or the Sort by Code) command, or
click the Sort by Name button (or the Sort by Code) button in the toolbar.

All items are sorted automatically. For more information on the sorting method, see below.

To order items manually:

open the Edit menu and select the Order Manually command, or
click the Order Manually button in the toolbar.

Subsequently, you can select a domain item and drag it to another position in the list. Continue to do so until satisfied.

Tips:

The sorting order of the classes or IDs in a domain determines the order of these items in a legend in a map window, the order of classes in a representation class, the order of records in an attribute table, and the order in lists from which you can choose a class name or ID, for instance when editing units in a map editor and when editing fields of class columns in a table.
The order of a group domain is determined by the upper boundary values of the groups in the group domain.
Mind: When you switch from a manual sorting order to Sorting by Name or by Code, the manual sorting order is lost.

Method of Sorting by Name or by Code:

when class names, IDs, or codes consist of characters A-Z and a-z only, sorting will order the items alphabetically as: A, AA, ABC, B, BB, etc.
when class names, IDs, or codes consist of characters A-Z and a-z followed by numbers, sorting will order the items first by the A-Z characters, then by numbers as in: A, A1, A2, A10, A11, AA, ABC, B, B1, B2, BB, etc.
like the previous one: when IDs consist of a prefix followed by a number, sorting will order the items first by the Prefix, then by the numbers as in: Plot 1, Plot 2, Plot 3, ..., Plot 10, XYZ 1, etc.

Other possible results of automatic sorting are for instance: A, A1, A2, A10, A11, A1A, A1B, B1, B10, B11, B1A, B1B, AA, ABC, or 1, 10A, 10B, 11A, 1A, 1B, 2, 2A, 2B, A, B.

To insert items from another domain into the current domain:

You are free to paste items or merge all items of a class domain with an ID domain, a group domain with an ID domain, etc.

To add only some items from another domain into the current domain, use the Copy and Paste method:

open the domain from which you want to get items,
select the items that you want to copy, and
click the Copy button in the toolbar, or choose Copy from the Edit menu or from the context-sensitive menu.

Then,

open the domain editor into which you want to paste these items,
click the Paste button in the toolbar, or choose Paste from the Edit menu or from the context-sensitive menu.

To merge all items of another domain into the current domain:

open the domain into which you want to merge items from another domain,
open the File menu and select the Merge Domain command,
in the appearing Merge Domain dialog box, select the domain from which you want to get items.

During Paste and Merge, the following is checked in the domain that you are merging into the current domain:

when a Name is encountered which already exists as a Name in the current domain, the item is not merged, i.e. the original Name remains.
when a Name is encountered which already exists as a Code in the current domain, the item is merged, i.e. the new Name appears, but the Code that existed in the current domain is removed.
when a Code is encountered which already exists as a Name or a Code in the current domain, the item is merged but the Code of the merged item remains empty.

In all cases, Names have priority over Codes.

Format of Copy and Paste:

For class and ID domains, the format produced by Copy is:
Name<TAB>Code<TAB>Description<CR><LF>
Name<TAB>Code<TAB>Description<CR><LF>

For group domains, the format produced by Copy is:
Name<TAB>Code<TAB>Description<TAB>UpperBoundaryValue<CR><LF>
Name<TAB>Code<TAB>Description<TAB>UpperBoundaryValue<CR><LF>

The expected format for Paste is the same as the format produced by Copy; however the last item in the list does not necessarily have to end on a <CR><LF>

To save a copy of this domain with a different name:

From the File menu, choose the Save Copy As command. It may be handy to use this command before merging domains or before deleting domain items so that, if something unexpected might happen, you can at least return to your original situation.

To delete a class name:

Select one or more classes, and:

open the Edit menu, and select the Delete Item command,
click the Delete Item button in the toolbar, or
click the right mouse button in the selection, and select Delete Item from the context-sensitive menu, or
press the Del key on your keyboard.

Deleting items from a domain should be done with care. When the domain and the deleted class, ID or group was used:

in a map, the undefined value will appear;
as a table domain, the record will not be shown any more;
as field in a column of a table, the undefined value will appear.

To change the Prefix of an ID domain:

When you created an ID domain while you chose to have a certain number of IDs automatically added to your domain and you specified a Prefix, you can change the prefix of all items that use it at a go:

From the Edit Menu, choose Change Prefix.
In the Change Prefix dialog box, you can specify a new Prefix which will be applied to all IDs that had the old prefix.

As it is not allowed to specify an empty prefix, it is not possible to delete the prefix of all prefixed IDs in an ID domain.

Other functionality:

Via the File menu, you can furthermore:

when editing a class or group domain: open and edit the representation of classes or groups by selecting the Open Representation command;
open the Properties of the domain by selecting the Properties command;
print one or more selected domain items by selecting the Print command.

To exit the domain Class/ID editor:

To exit the domain Class/ID editor, choose the Exit command on the File menu or click the Close button. All changes are already stored namely while editing the domain.

Additional information : Multiple selection

To select all domain items:

open the Edit menu and choose the Select All command.

To select two or more items in sequence:

click the first item you want to select,
press and hold down the Shift key while you click the last item in the group.

To select two or more items out of sequence:

press and hold down the Ctrl key while you click each item.

To cancel the selection of an item:

press and hold down the Ctrl key while you click a selected item.

To cancel the complete selection:

press the Esc key.