IFeatureClass Interface

Provides access to members that control the behavior and properties of a feature class.

Product Availability

Available with ArcGIS Engine, ArcGIS Desktop, and ArcGIS Server.

When To Use

The IFeatureClass interface is the main interface for getting and setting properties of a feature class. For example, use the IFeatureClass interface to get the type of feature class, get a count of features that satisfy some query, or create a new feature in the feature class. The IFeatureClass interface inherits from the IObjectClass interface.

Members

		Description
	AddField	Adds a field to this object class.
	AddIndex	Adds an index to this object class.
	AliasName	The alias name of the object class.
	AreaField	The geometry area field.
	CLSID	The GUID for the COM Class (CoClass) corresponding to instances of this object class.
	CreateFeature	Create a new feature, with a system assigned object ID and null property values.
	CreateFeatureBuffer	Create a feature buffer that can be used with an insert cursor.
	DeleteField	Deletes a field from this object class.
	DeleteIndex	Deletes an index from this object class.
	EXTCLSID	The GUID for the COM Class (CoClass) corresponding to the class extension for this object class.
	Extension	The extension for this object class.
	ExtensionProperties	The extension properties for this object class.
	FeatureClassID	The unique ID for the Feature Class.
	FeatureCount	The number of features selected by the specified query.
	FeatureDataset	The feature dataset that contains the feature class.
	FeatureType	The type of features in this feature class.
	Fields	The fields collection for this object class.
	FindField	The index of the field with the specified name.
	GetFeature	Get the feature with the specified object ID.
	GetFeatures	Get a cursor of Rows given a set of object ids.
	HasOID	Indicates if the class has an object identity (OID) field.
	Indexes	The indexes collection for this object class.
	Insert	Returns a cursor that can be used to insert new features.
	LengthField	The geometry length field.
	ObjectClassID	The unique ID for the object class.
	OIDFieldName	The name of the field corresponding to the OID.
	RelationshipClasses	The relationship classes in which this object class participates in for the specified role.
	Search	Returns an object cursor that can be used to fetch feature objects selected by the specified query.
	Select	Returns a selection That contains the object ids selected by the specified query.
	ShapeFieldName	The name of the default sShape field.
	ShapeType	The type of the default Shape for the features in this feature class.
	Update	Returns a cursor that can be used to update features selected by the specified query.

Inherited Interfaces

Interfaces	Description
IObjectClass	Provides access to members that return information about an object class.
IClass	Provides access to members that return information about and manage the class.

CoClasses that implement IFeatureClass

CoClasses and Classes	Description
FeatureClass	ESRI Feature Class object.
NAClass (esriNetworkAnalyst)	Holds features used as input and generated as output during network analysis.
RasterCatalog	A collection of raster datasets in a Geodatabase table.
RelQueryTable	An object that joins two datasets based on common data values.
RouteEventSource (esriLocation)	Route event source object.
TemporalFeatureClass (esriTrackingAnalyst)	Controls settings for the temporal feature class.
XYEventSource	XY event source object.

Remarks

Feature classes can be created using the IFeatureWorkspace.CreateFeatureClass and IFeatureDataset.CreateFeatureClass methods.

[Visual Basic 6.0]

The following two examples are code excerpts that show how to get a reference to an IFeatureClass in two different ways.

You can use the table of contents in ArcMap to get at the featureclass.

 Dim pFeatcls As IFeatureClass

 Dim pFeatLayer As IFeatureLayer

 Dim pDoc As IMxDocument

 Dim pMap As IMap

 

 Set pDoc = ThisDocument

 Set pMap = pDoc.Maps.Item(0)

 Set pFeatLayer = pMap.Layer(0)

 Set pFeatcls = pFeatLayer.FeatureClass

Alternatively, you could use code to get the workspace object that contains the feature class, then get the feature class from there. This example has the location of the Access workspace hard-coded, but can be changed to point to any geodatabase.

 Dim pFact As IWorkspaceFactory

 Set pFact = New AccessWorkspaceFactory

     

 Dim pWorkspace As IWorkspace

 Set pWorkspace = pFact.OpenFromFile("C:\data\usa.mdb", 0)

    

 Dim pFeatws As IFeatureWorkspace

 Set pFeatws = pWorkspace

    

 Dim pFeatcls As IFeatureClass

 Set pFeatcls = pFeatws.OpenFeatureClass("states")

Example

IFeatureClass Example