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Is it possible to only read the (selected) attributes, and not the geometry?

Quite often, I need to join the attributes from two spatial datasets, but only need the geometry from one. And I am assuming that reading in only the selected attributes without geometry is noticeably faster than reading the attributes with geometry.

Is it possible to read any dataset without geometry (other than reading it with and then doing a GeometryRemover)? And does this apply to all formats?

There's a few data types where this would be possible. I'd think any database you can access through the SQLCreator or where there is a non-spatial reader (like Oracle) available. Otherwise, certain formats store their attributes in such a way that they can be read independently, such as Shape (where the attributes are in a dBase file) and Mid/Mif (which uses csv).


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