QGIS – List Unique Values

By David Crowther

Question:

How can you List Unique Values for a layer within QGIS?

Answer:

The List Unique Values Tool allows you to interrogate and then list the unique values within one field of your GIS Layers.  

In QGIS below we have a Polygon Layer representing some Planning Applications.

From the Processing menu choose > Toolbox > and open the Vector Analysis section.

Choose the List Unique Values menu option.

The List Unique Values tool will open.

We will use the following settings:

• In the Input Layer choose the Planning Applications Layer
• In the Target Field choose the Progress Field

If you Run the List Unique Values tool, it will identify all the Unique values in the chosen Target field and create a Temporary Table within the Layers panel.

If you Open the Attributes Table for the new Temporary Layer you can see a record for each Unique Value – in this example, each unique Planning Application ‘Progress’ value.

This is a very easy method to run a Select DISTINCT (Unique) statement without having to run your own complex SQL queries!