topic Re: Attribute table to CSV in Data Management Questions

Attribute table to CSV

RonMan — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 17:37:35 GMT

Hi, I have an attribute table with 5 million rows. I would like to export this to csv. Unfortunately my first tries are not successful. I have tried table to excel and export to txt file & dbf file. From my searches in google and here in the community, I cannot believe that just a csv export will require python or an additional install or a third party software. Am I missing any built in tool? . I would appreciate if you can guide a beginner since I have no idea how to run a python program. Or could give me any guidance how to achieve a CSV from table.

Thank you.

Ronald

UAE

Re: Attribute table to CSV

TimWitt2 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 17:57:34 GMT

I have attached what I use. It is a python toolbox.

Re: Attribute table to CSV

RonMan — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:44:04 GMT

Thank Tim, I'll try it tomorrow. I'll see if I can make it work, I have not used any python tool before. I hope it is just an install.

Re: Attribute table to CSV

TimWitt2 — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:50:52 GMT

It is a little more involved. Within the MXD where your data is, open ArcToolbox. Within the toolbox window right click some white space and choose "Add toolbox". NAvigate to the folder where you unzipped the attached file and select the "Excel and CSV Conversion Tools.tbx" toolbox.

Re: Attribute table to CSV

JayantaPoddar — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 19:15:12 GMT

You can use Export Feature Attribute to ASCII tool to achieve the desired output.

See below snapshot.

Re: Attribute table to CSV

JoeBorgione — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 19:39:02 GMT

Jayanta Poddar‌ - just wondering if there is an import from ascii to table tool. I've been searching but haven't come across one. You can add a csv as a data source, and then I guess you can export that as a table. It would be cool to have a utility like in Access that takes it straight in.

Re: Attribute table to CSV

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 19:43:05 GMT

Joe... I have ascii imports but ascii, do you mean ascii to raster?? If it is for tabular data, then use NumPyArrayToTable to bring in tabular data and TableToNumPyArray to go back, And to get the text data into numpy... it has lots of cool tools for importing data into structured and/or recarrays (check my blog, or email me with specifics of format you are working with)

Re: Attribute table to CSV

JayantaPoddar — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 19:51:58 GMT

Joe,

Are you looking for Table To Table—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop ?

This tool supports the following table formats as input:
Geodatabase
dBASE (.dbf)
Comma-separated values (.csv)
Tab-delimited text (.txt)
Microsoft Excel worksheets (.xls or .xlsx)
INFO
VPF
OLE database
In-memory table views

Re: Attribute table to CSV

JoeBorgione — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 20:11:52 GMT

Saw the table to table tool listed but didn't notice that it accepts csv or txt files as input. While I avoid txt or csv files as much as I can, sometimes the need arises. I notice the table to table tool doesn't care for pipe ( | ) delimited files which is often times what I get. The Access import wizard is great for those:

Dan_Patterson - I was just wondering out loud....

Re: Attribute table to CSV

DanPatterson_Retired — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 14:17:51 GMT

Contents of a table called pipe.txt... totally not fancy could have leading trailing whatever, but your pipes are there

a|bc|efgh|ijk

Anything is possible, including rearranging, alternate dtypes (numbers, text etc)

dt = [('A', '<U5'), ('B', '<U5'), ('C', '<U5'), ('D', '<U5')]  # arbitrarily set width and dtype

txt = np.loadtxt("c:/temp/pipe.txt", dtype=dt, delimiter="|")  # pipes as separator

txt

array(('a', 'bc', 'efgh', 'ijk'),
      dtype=[('A', '<U5'), ('B', '<U5'), ('C', '<U5'), ('D', '<U5')])

txt['A']    # a single slice of a columns

array('a',
      dtype='<U5')

txt[['A', 'C', 'B', 'D']]   # slice column while rearranging
Out[26]: 
array(('a', 'efgh', 'bc', 'ijk'),
      dtype=[('A', '<U5'), ('C', '<U5'), ('B', '<U5'), ('D', '<U5')])‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Re: Attribute table to CSV

JoeBorgione — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 22:46:11 GMT

Cool. (I find myself following along much easier now, which means all your efforts have not been in vain!) Loadtxt can skip rows too I see...

You've seen how ugly those dumps from the mainframe are: trailing spaces as wide as the field is defined. Lots of clean up....

Re: Attribute table to CSV

RobertBorchert — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 14:00:53 GMT

Try exporting it first to a personal geodatabase.

Then go to the database in Access and export it from there as .csv

Re: Attribute table to CSV

RonMan — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 17:31:32 GMT

Thank you all for suggesting the different methods. All your responses are very informative.

The export feature attributes to ascii was able to export successfully a csv file as big as 11 million records.

Regards,

Ron

Re: Attribute table to CSV

ErinGrimm1 — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 22:54:56 GMT

Hey Ron,

Glad the "to ascii" worked for you. I will have to try that. I had a table recently with 3.8 million records and was having a heck of a time finding a solution. While the help page from the Table to Table tool mentioned .csv was possible, there weren't any examples that jumped out at me. I forgot where I found it, but it was as simple as adding ".csv" to the file name for my exported table which allowed the Table to Table tool to recognize I wanted CSV and not a DBF.

Sounds like you found a solution, but wanted to document this here in case someone else is looking for answers.

Re: Attribute table to CSV

JpersonalLundquist — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 08:16:03 GMT

Well, I believe current Excel and Libre Office Calc can only handle 1,000,000 records. So, they just can't read it. dbf and txt are the next choice from my experience. Good topic, thanks.