Changing fields order in QGIS

Question

I have to draw several stuff and input the data, all the layers have the same data fields but some require 2\5 attributes to be filled.

Is there a way to change the order of those fields to be on top so I get to input them easier without changing the order of the field themselves?

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score 18 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 24 '22 at 08:30

18

Open the attribute table. Right-click the column headings in the attribute table. Select "Organize columns" in the drop-down menu.

Then, just drag the heading to the position you want it to be in (See the image of the "organize table columns" box below).

Click OK. Headings should have rearranged the way you want them to be arranged in the attribute table.

edited Nov 24 '22 at 08:30

Taras

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answered Jan 21 '20 at 18:58

Angela P

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This does not save the changed order in the original files. – Daniel Möller Nov 24 '23 at 02:46

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 24 '22 at 08:36

15

Open the Fields tab from the Layer properties. From there, select the Drag and drop designer option and drag to the right the fields you want to edit. You can also change the field order.

You can then edit a feature and choose to display the fields in form view. Only the fields you selected in the previous step will be shown.

edited Nov 24 '22 at 08:36

Taras

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answered May 13 '17 at 12:29

JGH

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Is it possible to do this programmatically via PyQgis API? – Vladimir Obrizan May 12 '22 at 05:41
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Ok, found https://qgis.org/pyqgis/master/core/QgsEditFormConfig.html which responsible for that. – Vladimir Obrizan May 12 '22 at 05:48
There is no "drag and drop" option here. Is this changed in newer versions? – Daniel Möller Nov 24 '23 at 02:45
@DanielMöller It's still there (but I can't guess which version you are using and if there is a bug or not in a very specific release) – JGH Nov 24 '23 at 11:10
I'm using 3.28.5-Firenze and couldn't find it at all. I resorted to the "Refactor fields" answer. – Daniel Möller Nov 24 '23 at 14:58
in 3.28 and above the "Drag and Drop designer" is part of "Layer Properties / Attribute Forms" - according to the interface the form layout can be arranged ... unfortunately dragging the fields order into a way I would like to have doesn't change anything in my forms – robert tuw Feb 14 '24 at 12:00

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 24 '22 at 08:30

10

If I understand your question, you may use the "Refactor fields" algorithm from the Processing Toolbox (Ctrl+Alt+T): it allows manipulating the order of your fields stored in the Attribute Table.

Allows editing the structure of the attribute table of a vector layer.

Fields can be modified in their type and name, using a fields mapping.

The original layer is not modified. A new layer is generated, which contains a modified attribute table, according to the provided fields mapping.

edited Nov 24 '22 at 08:30

Taras

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answered May 13 '17 at 09:23

mgri

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it's exactly what i was looking for except that it creates a new layer with the new attributes order .. is there a way to do the same with the layer itself without creating a new one? – AsdAsd May 13 '17 at 11:55
@AbdullahAlaa, maybe not with common tools. Can't you overwrite the original layer? Maybe your task could be accomplished using some PyQGIS code. – mgri May 13 '17 at 12:04

Taras · Answer 4 · 2023-01-06T09:48:28.970

This solution only changes the order of columns in the attribute table, and not in the original file.

This PyQGIS solution utilizes the setColumns() and setAttributeTableConfig() methods.

Let's assume there is a layer called 'gis_osm_buildings', see the image below.

To get the original order of fields:

layer = iface.activeLayer()
print([layer.attributeDisplayName(index) for index in layer.attributeList()])

that gives:

['osm_id', 'lastchange', 'code', 'fclass', 'geomtype', 'name', 'type', 'height', 'levels']

To set a new order of fields one can achieve with the following function:

from qgis.core import QgsProject
def setting_new_columns_order(layer_name: str, new_order: list) -> None:
    """
    Changes order of all columns in the layer
    Parameters:
    ==========
    :param layer_name: name of the layer
    :param new_order: a list with a new order of columns
    """
layer = QgsProject.instance().mapLayersByName(layer_name)[0]

layer_attr_table_config = layer.attributeTableConfig()
columns_config = layer_attr_table_config.columns()

columns_new_order_dict = {column : new_order.index(column.name) for column in columns_config if
                          column.type == 0 and column.name in new_order}
columns_new_order_list = sorted(columns_new_order_dict, key=columns_new_order_dict.get, reverse=False)

layer_attr_table_config.setColumns(columns_new_order_list)
layer.setAttributeTableConfig(layer_attr_table_config)

return


setting_new_columns_order('gis_osm_buildings', ['name', 'type', 'osm_id', 'code', 'fclass', 'height', 'levels', 'lastchange', 'geomtype'])

References:

PyQGIS Developer Cookbook

How can this be done without loading the source into the layer? — Er Re, Dec 30 '22 at 16:13
Possible, you just need to read your vector layer like described here: https://docs.qgis.org/latest/en/docs/pyqgis_developer_cookbook/loadlayer.html — Taras, Jan 02 '23 at 06:39

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 24 '22 at 08:33

1

You may also use the "Table manager" plugin only available on QGIS 2.18 and > which only lets you edit the vector file without creating a new one.

edited Nov 24 '22 at 08:33

Taras

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answered Mar 19 '19 at 07:09

Alvin Komen

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Changing fields order in QGIS

5 Answers5

This solution only changes the order of columns in the attribute table, and not in the original file.

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