ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5; Oracle 18c 10.7.1 eGDB:
My unit has recently completed a months-long project that involved extensive tabular analysis of our EGDB data. The analysis involved complex queries, including non-spatial joins.
Ultimately, my coworkers found they couldn't use ArcGIS Pro for the analysis and ended up using Excel as a temporary workaround. Now that the project is complete, they've asked the following question:
Going forward, is ArcGIS Pro the right tool for tabular/join-based analysis of our enterprise geodatabase data?
Based on the issues listed below, we are coming to the conclusion that the answer is, unfortunately, no.
It's unfortunate that we feel Pro isn't the right tool for tabular analysis of geodatabase data. We've been die-hard ArcGIS Pro users up to this point. But ultimately, users have developed trust issues and have come up against too many walls when doing tabular analysis in Pro.
What tools do experienced practitioners use for complex tabular analysis of enterprise geodatabase data?
The current use case is: analysis of construction project GIS data, with no room for error. And many other use cases.
Some quotes from colleagues from other organizations:
Biology:
It is this kind of thing that has led me to not trust joins in Arc, especially with bigger datasets. When I need to join tables, I typically use FME or R as they seem more stable with large datasets and produce more predicable results.
Public Works:
Pro can be flakey when you have joins. Lots of unexpected behaviour. I use SQL in the backend instead.
Engineering/Consulting:
I've come across similar issues and limitations. I'm researching alternatives as well.
I'm under the impression that there aren't any immediate plans to fix the issues mentioned in the post above (other than the issues in #6, which I think are fixed in 3.x).
If that's the case, then what would be a good alternative to Pro for tabular/join-based analysis of real-time EGDB data?
I would say, as you’ve discovered, the answer is Pro until it isn’t. It’s tricky at times and frustrating because it seems as if when a bug gets addressed in one version, another bug is created.
I use Pro for temporary joins fairly often (usually weekly) but I have to keep the issues in mind and try to pay attention to results that do not make sense, which isn’t always easy to do. When I want to double check, my answer is Excel; and for some tasks I use Excel before I use Pro.
Thanks. This sounds very familiar. It helps to know we’re not the only ones facing these challenges.
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