How to change field type in Excel before importing?

EllieHakari

Hello everyone!

I'm currently trying to calibrate stationing along a highway, but I need the stationing to be straight numbers ("54000" instead of the typical "540+00"). I have an Excel document that the correct formatting is in, and I thought I'd join it with our current stationing shapefile, but when I import it into ArcMAP, the field is automatically changed to a string. I need it to be a number field. That's the only way the calibrate tool will work. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Things I've tried:

Changing field type from ArcCatalog (which I found you can't change from text to number)

Setting the type in Excel to number

EDIT: I fixed it myself. Apparently if you save your Excel document as a .csv first, then import it, ArcMAP will automatically make the field numeric.

JoeBorgione

You say the spreadsheet has the 'correct formatting'.  Which is correct: 5400 or 54+00?

I'm getting lost with your terminology and methodology:

I thought I'd join it with our current stationing shapefile....   What is the keyfield with which you are joining the excel spreadsheet and the shapefile ?(I hope you mean feature class, shapefiles are so 90's)

but when I import it into ArcMAP...   What do you mean by import?  Import is a specific method with which to transfer data from one database to another. For example you import Table X  into A.gdb from B.gdb.  Do you really mean when I add my spreadsheet as a table to an ArcMap session?

If you can clarify what you have and what you are doing, we might be able to help you.