Joining hdf files with multi bands and no attribute tables to a shape file

Question

I have a hdf file showing raster data and I want to join this to a shape file (in Acrgis) so can aggregate the values to areas rather than cells. Unfornuately the hdf has no attribute table so I cannot join. When I try to create one it says it can't be done as isn't a single band file. Is there a way around it so I can join the data?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Use Extract Subdataset to convert the HDF to a raster. Then use Zonal Statistics as Table with your shapefile to aggregate the statistics you would like. Lastly, join the relevant fields in this output table back to the shapefile using Join Field. For multiband HDF, you will need to extract each HDF subdataset index (single band) to individual rasters and apply these tools for as many times as needed. If the HDF sundataset index contains integer values, you may be able to access its attribute table and perform a join by attributes, but zonal statistics is typically used for aggregating raster values to features (shapefiles).