Multipart To Singlepart

Draft: written, not yet checked by a person Operation · multipart-to-singlepart

Splits each multipart feature into one feature per part, each with the original attributes.

Pitfall. Feature counts grow, so keys that were unique per feature are repeated on every part.

About this operation
Also called	Explode, explode multipart features, disaggregate, split multipart
Group	`vector/geometry`
Checks	`geometry.valid`
Pitfalls	1 listed above
Columbus tool	Not stated
Notes	Not stated
Status	active
Broader	Not stated
Narrower	Not stated
Related	`dissolve`

Parameters

Not stated

Direction	Name	Type	Geometry	Note
Input	`layer`	vector	Not stated	Not stated
Output	`output`	vector	Not stated	Not stated

Engine	Tool	Parameters	Differences
`apache-sedona`	`sedona.sql.ST_Dump`	`layer` → `geometry`	Returns an array of the parts; explode it into rows. A Spark SQL function: arguments are columns or column names, run over a Spark DataFrame.
`gdal`	`gdal vector explode-collections`	`layer` → `input` `output` → `output`	None noted
`geopandas`	`geopandas.GeoSeries.explode`	Not stated	Keeps the original index, repeated for each part, unless ignore_index is set; GeoDataFrame.explode keeps the other columns.
`postgis`	`st_dump`	`layer` → `#1`	Returns a set of geometry_dump rows (path, geom); select (ST_Dump(geom)).geom.
`qgis`	`native:multiparttosingleparts`	`layer` → `INPUT` `output` → `OUTPUT`	None noted
`shapely`	`shapely.get_parts`	`layer` → `geometry`	Returns an array of parts; return_index = True also gives which input each part came from.
`terra`	`terra::disagg`	`layer` → `x`	On a SpatRaster, disagg splits cells into smaller ones instead (fact).
`whiteboxtools`	`MultiPartToSinglePart`	`layer` → `input` `output` → `output`	exclude_holes (default true) keeps polygon holes with their polygon rather than splitting them out.