Q:

Remove Holes Existing Within a Single Polygon in ArcGIS 10

I have a shapefile that consists of a single polygon.  I have gaps within the polygon that need to be eliminated.  The resultant dataset shoulde be a single, solid polygon.
I have tried implementing topology rules (rule: must not have gaps) on the dataset (it's in a geodatabase and within a feature dataset), but I don't think this is the appropriate solution/technique to accomplish this task. Any ideas?
I'm on ArGIS 10 with an ArcInfo License.

A:

The help file under Common Polygon Editing Tasks and the section Filling in donut holes in polygons may help. 
You could also try the "must not have gaps" rule to actually find the donut polygons. I've had mixed success with automatically creating polygons to fill the gap, when using the Topology edit toolbar.
Either way, once you've filled the holes you could use the Merge or Dissolve tools to create a single polygon.

