ArcMap

Output raster formats and names

Available with Spatial Analyst license.

The name you give to an output raster and it's location determines the format in which it is created. The options for specifying the output raster format are the following:

  • If the location you have specified is in a geodatabase, the output raster will be created in that particular type of geodatabase (personal, file, or ArcSDE).
  • If the location is a folder, the default format is a TIFF raster, as indicated by the provided .tif extension.
  • If the location is a folder and no extension is specified for the output name, the raster will be in the Esri Grid raster format.
  • If the location is a folder and the name has an .img extension, the output will be in the ERDAS IMAGINE format.

If another format is desired, for example, BIL or JP2, first an output in one of the formats listed above must be created. Then, use the Copy Raster or Raster To Other Format tool to convert it to the other format.

Name restrictions

Certain names and characters are generally not allowed for the name of an output raster.

  • To avoid problems with the English character set, it is recommended that you limit the name to contain only letters of the alphabet (A to Z, a to z), digits (0 to 9), underscores (_) and hyphens (-). The plus (+) symbol is also allowed, but not recommended.
  • Special characters that are explicitly not allowed include the following: 
    ' '  (space)            (   (open parenthesis)
 \   (backslash)        )   (close parenthesis)
 ,   (comma)            {   (open brace)
 ~   (tilde)            }   (close brace)
 '   (single quote)     [   (open bracket)
 "   (double quote)     ]   (close bracket)
  • The word con should not be used.
  • It is generally recommended that you have the first letter of a raster name be a character instead of a number or symbol.

There are some variations based on the particular output raster format selected, but by following these guidelines, you should avoid having any problems with creating your outputs.

Esri Grid format

The name of an Esri Grid format raster has more specific restrictions:

  • The maximum number of characters is 13.
  • It cannot have spaces.
  • It cannot use special characters other than underscore ( "_" ).
  • For tools that output an Esri Grid Stack, the stack name cannot have more than 9 characters.
  • The total length of the name for a Grid and its path cannot be more than 128 characters.

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