topic Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

RobertRose — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 19:08:00 GMT

I am trying to join an excel table to a Feature Class. The join works fine in ArcMap but when I try the same join with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro, the join does not seem to work. Basically it looks like all the joined fields are Null, indicating that no matches between the two files were found.

Any suggestions?

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 19:29:38 GMT

are both fields of the same data type? numbers to numbers (right-justified) or text to text (left-justified)

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

RobertRose — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 19:44:32 GMT

They are both text fields although I am not certain how to check justification.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 19:54:03 GMT

in an Arc* table, it will show up obviously as either being to the left or right of the cell and of course, you can check the field properties to confirm. In excel, never trust anything since you can put any type of data in a column and numbers can become text when a column is formatted as such. It is best in excell to highlight the column and right-click (or something) to bring up the column properties, then check around for the column data type... if it is numeric, then it should be set to an integer number format (ie no decimalss)

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

MervynLotter — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 20:20:30 GMT

Try shutting down and then reopening ArcGIS Pro and then trying the join

again (worked for me a few months back with Pro 1.2). Although probably not

what you are looking for, you can try running the Excel to Table

geoprocessing tool and then the join.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

SarahAcMoody — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 19:50:06 GMT

I too am having this issue. The join (Excel table to gdb feature class) works just fine in ArcMap and the join is "Successful" in ArcGIS Pro, but once joined, the joined table has all Nulls. All the obvious issues have been checked, double checked and tripled checked. I am still at Pro 1.2 and am wondering if it's still an issue with joining to Excel tables. My original table was an *.xls, but I also tried it with a *.xlsx with the same results.

My work-around for now is converting the excel spreadsheet to a gdb table as suggested above. That worked fine, but is not ideal for my workflow. If anyone has experienced this and has a solution or perhaps can pin it down to a Pro version issue, that would be great.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 20:19:42 GMT

Could have been an issue, but I suspect you would have to see the release notes for each subsequent version to see if it was indeed an identified bug or not. I suspect if it was a bug, there would be a notice sometime between 1.2 and 1.4.1, otherwise, it may reside in the nature and contents of your data as suggested in my previous post.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

Robert_LeClair — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 21:55:21 GMT

Robert - I found a BUG logged that seems very close to what you're experiencing - BUG-000101179

It was discovered in 1.3.1 and is still open at 1.4.1. I don't know if it will be resolved at 2.0 Pro.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

SarahAcMoody — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 11:59:41 GMT

Thanks Dan. I don't believe it's the nature or contents of my data, although I may do some additional testing with simple datasets. The join works in ArcMap and all validation warnings have been cleaned up. I will investigate the release notes!

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

SarahAcMoody — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 12:03:01 GMT

I think this is it! Thanks Robert. I will have to investigate the definition of "regional characters", but this is exactly what is happening with my join. This is also the workaround I utilized. Thanks so much for sharing this! It's much appreciated.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

JessieZarazaga1 — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 17:52:11 GMT

Yes. My students and I have the same issue. The most important thing is for ESRI to know so that they can fix this in a new version.

There are a couple of work-a rounds.

1. use the excel to table conversion tool. This works but its an extra step.

2. Save the excel table as csv. That seems to join without problems. But again, its an extra step.

3. I was told that if excel columns are correctly defined as appropriate field types it should work, but I haven't had success even with this.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 18:05:54 GMT

I, like many others, don't recommend using excel files directly. There is too much that can go wrong and the whole idea that a column/field can contain anything just goes against what the arc* line of products enforces. Allow the conversion tools to deal what you may not be able to see, an extra step perhaps, but it will save time and frustration in the long run.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

Robert_LeClair — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 20:42:22 GMT

Jessie - I looked a little deeper into the bug report and found the following text from 3/4/17:

"Status of the bug is ‘Assigned’ that means the bug has been assigned to a Development lead, who is responsible for its continued evaluation and resolution. For updates on this issue, please see the My Esri Support portal website: https://my.esri.com/#/support or contact ESRI Support Services."

Also, with regard to "regional characters", this bug has been seen with Japanese and Swedish languages. Hope this helps.

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

JustMapSynch — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 01:56:50 GMT

The fix to the bug you mention was apparently fixed in ArcGIS Pro 2.1:

https://support.esri.com/bugs/nimbus/QlVHLTAwMDEwMTE3OQ==

Re: Why does a Join in ArcMap fail with the same two files in ArcGIS Pro

Robert_LeClair — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 20:05:28 GMT

Yes it was - thx for the update!