CSV to SHP File Conversion

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a way to edit a shapefile as a CSV file, add some background information to the data, and then upload it back as a shapefile with all of the polygon features (not as point data).

I've been able to edit the shapefile data within ArcGIS but it would be so much faster if I could work with it in Excel and then transform it back into a shp file with all the parcel geometries. I tried using this online converter but it never processed: https://mygeodata.cloud/converter/csv-to-shp.

I've seen a few people suggest some codes, but I dont know much about Python and I'd like to avoid that as much as I can. Any tips? Thank you so much!

Amir-Sarrafzadeh-Arasi · Answer

Dear Biah,

As " Robert_LeClair" said in his response,

You can export the table of the feature layer and modify the excel table and do the join to import the modified data in your feature layer.

Please follow the videos in the below Youtube link to figure out better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-7b2wC7Q04&list=PLZCAA5zaoYwhD_Uc7039KQJ8Aif8lcE7u&index=1

Best of luck

Robert_LeClair · Answer

Instead of exporting the shapefile to a CSV, doing attribute entry, and reimporting it back as a shapefile (would be a cumbersome process anyway), what you could do is "denormalize" your attribute table.  Let's say you have a Parcel ID number field as your only user defined attribute in the shapefile.  Then you have an *.xlsx or *.csv file that also has the same parcel ID number field.  Do all your attribute edits in Excel, save that file, then in ArcGIS Pro, do an Add Join GP tool process and join the non-spatial table to the shapefile spatial table based upon the Parcel ID number.  The shapefile attribute table is now a much "larger" attribute table that you can do symbology upon, labels, field calculations to the spatial table and more.  Would that work?