I’m behind. I feel like Raster Attribute Tables have been a thing and I’ve not had to use them so I just ignore it. After doing a bit of digging it looks like this has been a thing in QGIS and ESRI Software since about 2018/2019.
I grabbed the National Landcover Dataset for the US and did some poking. This is a ERDAS img file. If I right click the layer I can open the Attribute Table.
I can “reclassify” their values. I can add more fields. I’m old. This is weird.
From here according to the Changelog:
- Automatic raster styling: If a RAT is available when adding a raster to the project and includes style information, QGIS will apply the relevant styles to the raster layer by default. Automatic loading works for both embedded RATs and sidecar VAT.DBF with same basename of the raster.
- RAT reclassification: Reclassification of a raster can be performed by selecting a different column
- RAT Identify: Values from the RAT row corresponding to the relevant pixel value are shown in the identify Map Tool
- RAT properties: A new “Attribute Table†tab is available from the raster layers property window
- RAT editing: RATs offer basic editing capabilities
- RAT creation from current classification: RATs can be created from existing paletted or singleband pseudocolor styles
