Using Copy / Paste when editing attribute tables in QGIS

Question

I have a number of polygon attribute tables with columns that I want to update with new information.

Is there a way of (relatively) quickly editing info in attribute tables in QGIS?

For example, such as using Control C and V such as in MapInfo. Currently seem to need to double click/right click/copy, move to cell, double click/right click/paste each individual cell I want to change - would like something simple rather than going down the field calculator, filter, etc route. With points no problem; I usually throw them out to Excel, edit and then bring back in again.

Answer 1

If your editing situation is conditional you may use a CASE expression within field calculator:

CASE expression A conditional expression that can be used to evaluate multiple expressions and return a result.

Syntax:

 CASE
 WHEN condition THEN result
 [ ...n ]
 [ ELSE result ]
 END

Example:

CASE
 WHEN "mycolumn" = 'A' THEN 'Letter A'
 WHEN "mycolumn" = 'B' THEN 'Letter B'
 ELSE "mycolumn"
END

This should at least eliminate the need to perform selections and filters before running calculations.

• DirkB: Thanks. However what I want is basic - whole heap of null values that I want to change into a a large number of defined set of types for each column heading which can then be selected for display eg rehab year, method, area_number, type, etc. Quite variable and specific for each row of info. Only really need to do this once as I'm inputting all information that I can find.
• MKJ: Did you manage to perform that in Mapinfo?