HOW TO

Delete spatially coincident points without using Delete Identical tool

Last Published: April 25, 2020

Summary

Spatially coincident points - duplicate points at identical locations - may exist in a dataset, and it is sometimes necessary to delete duplicate points to retain only one point feature with one attribute table entry. In ArcGIS Desktop 10.X, the Find Identical and Delete Identical tools are introduced for managing duplicate records. However, these two tools require an Advanced license. Therefore, users using Basic license or Standard license or using earlier version of ArcGIS Desktop (9.X) need alternative methods to delete duplicate points. 

Procedure

The Dissolve (Data Management) tool can be used as an alternative to dissolve spatial coincident points into one point feature. This method is applicable for all license levels and software versions. 
  1. Run the Add XY Coordinate (Data Management) tool to add X and Y coordinates attribute fields to the point layer.
  2. Run the Dissolve (Data Management) tool to dissolve spatially coincident point features:
    • Dissolve_Fields(s): Add both the X and Y coordinate fields added in Step 1. Optionally, add additional attribute fields if only points that are spatially coincident and have identical attribute values in certain fields should be dissolved. 
    • Statistics Field(s): Select the proper operator to aggregate attribute values for the retained point features. 
If the spatially coincident features are lines or polygons, the following article describes the available options with ArcScripts: FAQ: Does ArcGIS provide a way to identify or remove features with duplicate geometries?​

Article ID: 000014726

Software:
  • ArcMap

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