# QGIS: Split Multi-field Shapefiles

### DESCRIPTION

Sometimes you have a shapefile with many fields in it. GeoPard supports .shp per field boundary upload. So, to upload such a file you need to split it into many shapefiles, you can do the following in a free QGIS program.

<figure><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/G8ooE_FarMCXvt6CjpvfwgRIiIwLVcSki84FFUiBelII7dZVLJHPN2K_Dj4As-VZNXYsut1q2JGtYEir3GCVfWqwKe4UAI9r9OcIM87jOkDRfiGes_wmD6zTmUyZpUZXgkQBUaW8RCsdaUKY18kaVQ" alt=""><figcaption><p>1 - Initial field boundary consists of 2 polygons</p></figcaption></figure>

#### 1 - Initial file consists of 2 polygons

![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/bPHakKUPYwzf7JtsbKXWtvBIcdC6bQBOl1Z7Wg193U8teAB71r9LRrTO16Yunume7QknmArBlpM-7G4nddZUP5r0KECEsZK7hVPHx4-HWpiDTGB5qvhAtAhZ0_aI-AVLi9Q1xB7SesEnOhbLkS1WGg)

#### 2 - Toggle editing on the layer

<figure><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/g5B3A43gGlRbUBv2hkAt8xVT7UXzLvj06KB99R471uQQAIZLdoHFPmopQfz9ntwflEEN70DDUuMp7LQGqPocfzkBWbVc27Fm3pPCu2kWhbfnaG54TKGKmj4gKJw7sA10NKJf6ezJ62JVLtMlpSAl1Q" alt=""><figcaption><p>Split vector layer</p></figcaption></figure>

#### 3 - Choose the Split vector layer option

<figure><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oWwaxwcCPhOp6kIlpDM4z0CK_J_Q6QGCoIdXhr-vMrpQrf_HOLT5ZfHYExEk7J0QIYdPKunOdhe14S9Ay_-FtwGnTnq19GdtnWC4cUcEhEOXIGj7vZdZPsCovszX0sVdz1bF-yraci-5g09ZNJRocw" alt=""><figcaption><p>Choose layer and attribute</p></figcaption></figure>

#### 4 - Choose a Layer and Attribute

1. &#x20;a layer (file) to split
2. &#x20;a unique attribute based on which split will happen
3. Output directory (should be created in advance)

<figure><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/tDOJ7vPBHqCy8peu5Xb97FkYz43HZXnniWwYj6-UXcaMyJaEvuWqx6ew40n9OvXM9OGrPGof0rWasEcgQFjh9SEakNXKW4K4n3Ei56B6jwttr_NW30naaD4OYNJERbQeqeX7bE4JJNd_HwYlgdKIqg" alt=""><figcaption><p>Choose output shp</p></figcaption></figure>

#### Advanced Parameters - Choose shp as the Output file format

\ <br>

#### 5 - Click run and go to the Output directory folder. New files should be created. One file per polygon (field)

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#### 6. If created files are .gpkg drag & drop them into qgis and resave them one by one into the .shp format

#### Right click >Export>Save features as> 1. Format ESRI shapefile

2\. Select the path and file name

3\. Uncheck unnecessary attributes

#### &#x20;Important note -

&#x20;Slash / or Backslash \ can break the creation of files (and some other special characters). Please, remove or edit them in case of error.