At any time in the life of a geodatabase, a new attribute domain can be created using the Domains Properties dialog box.
You can create new attribute range domains, or you can create coded value domains.
If a feature class has subtypes, domains must be applied at the subtype level and not at the fields level. See Creating subtypes.
- In the Catalog tree, right-click the geodatabase and click Properties.
- Click the Domains tab.
- Click the first empty field under Domain Name and type a name for the new domain.
- Press the TAB key or click the new domain's description field and type a description for the domain.
- Click the field next to Field Type, click the drop-down arrow, then click the type of attribute field to which this domain will be applied.
- Click the field next to Domain Type, click the drop-down arrow, then click Coded Values from the list of domain types.
- Click the first empty field under Coded values and type the first valid code.
- Press the TAB key or click the new coded value's Description field. Type a user-friendly description for this coded value.
- Repeat steps 7 and 8 until all valid values and their descriptions have been typed.
- Click the field next to Split policy, click the drop-down arrow, then click the split policy for the new domain. Do the same for the merge policy.
- Click Apply to create the new domain in the geodatabase, or click OK to create the domain and close the dialog box.