why so crashy?

Question

I have a large shape file and I need to open the attribute table, select all, export as a text file. My last file, and the largest one,  crashes arcmap whenever I try to select all attributes.  There are over 13 million records, so maybe that's why, not sure.  I just need to import/export all these records into M. Access.  Any suggestions on other routes of action????
Jason

SusanZwillinger · Answer

Did you try converting your shapefile to a feature class in a file geodatabase?  A FGDB does not have the limitations that shapefiles have and I think you might have much better luck exporting the entire table to a text file if the source data is not a shapefile.

LeonardLuz3 · Answer

Do you already have the latest patch regarding shapefile crash? I would suggest that you install that one too. You can find it here http://support.esri.com/en/downloads/patches-servicepacks/view/productid/160/metaid/2026 🙂

markdenil · Answer

13 million records is a honkin big shapefile.
Use a definition query to create layers with only half or a third of the records and export each.
After all the parts are exported, you can concatenate the text files.

layer files are only views of the data, so your original shapefile is not divided
(unless you want to split it up)
But it makes the parts ArcMap is handling smaller.