topic Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb in Data Management Questions

How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

TerryWatson — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 01:38:43 GMT

I am trying to combine multiple shapefiles into a file geodatabase.

The shapefiles are in separate folders with same filenames and attribute fields.

I have tried combining but i get a gdb with separate filenames (ie. shape1, shape2, shape3 etc.). Im downloading these datasets in pieces, and would like to reassemble all of them into one gdb file and layer.

Attached is a sample of what I want to combine. The folders are differnt names, but the shapefiles are all the same. I need a workflow to combine these, plus append new files as I download them.

--Terry

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

AdrianWelsh — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 02:18:57 GMT

Hi Terry,

Could you copy one of your shapefiles over to the geodatabase and then use the Append—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop tool to append the other datasets into your current one? Do you have many that you are working with?

If not that then, export the first shapefile into your gdb and then open that gdb feature class in an Edit Session and just copy and paste the other shapefiles into the Editing layer. Does that make sense?

I did not see an attachment for your first post.

Cheers,

Adrian

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

TerryWatson — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 02:23:17 GMT

Thanks, I will try...edited post...should see attachment now

Append gives me an error - TEST says schemas dont match and NO TEST fails also

I would be happy with being able to combine shapefiles with the same name (ie. DML - Department Misc Lease.shp ) into one shapefile

--Terry

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

AdrianWelsh — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 03:04:32 GMT

There is probably some kind of easy iteration thing to do in order to get all of this to behave the way you want, but I cannot think of it right now. This may be tedious, but this is what I would do since there isn't a ton of data.

For the first extract folder, export it all into a geodatabase (from ArcCatalog, create a new file gdb and import multiple shapefiles and grab them all from that folder). Then add all those feature classes into ArcMap. Then for each subsequent extract folder, load the shapefiles into the same ArcMap instance, start an edit session for the original gdb features, and copy and paste the shapefiles into the gdb.

I hope that makes sense and it's too bad that Append didn't work. I'm sure someone else on here (likely tomorrow) would have a better and more appropriate answer involving a geoprocessing tool and maybe some iterations. Either way, good luck!

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

TerryWatson — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 03:17:30 GMT

Thanks for your help...I cant figure it out either...will keep trying a few things tho

--Terry

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

WesMiller — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 13:52:05 GMT

Have you tried the Merge—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop tool. If they are all the same format you should be able to combine them into one, you may have to rename the files so they all don't have the same name. Seems I read something a while back were having files with same name was an issue.

Edit:

You may also be interested in About loading data in ArcMap—ArcGIS Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

TerryWatson — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 00:03:08 GMT

Hi Wes,

I tried Merge but I didnt get the results i needed.

--Terry

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

AdrianWelsh — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 00:48:12 GMT

Before merging, were all of your shapefiles exported into your geodatabase? This may have to happen first.

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

TerryWatson — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 14:42:47 GMT

Yes I have done that...Merging returns an error

--Terry

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

AdrianWelsh — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 14:44:58 GMT

What kind or error are you getting? And have you tried just copying and pasting (from the shapefile layer into your file gdb layer)?

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

BenjaminMittler — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 15:06:04 GMT

Just making sure, all 3 of the layers are of the same geometry type? (polyline, polygon, point)?

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

TerryWatson — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 15:24:25 GMT

Yes...please try the attached files and see what you get...im having no luck here

--Terry

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

BenjaminMittler — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 15:42:40 GMT

How did you go about creating these shapefiles. Seems to be a problem with attribute tables. Most of them don't load attribute table data. Maybe a problem with field names.

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

AdrianWelsh — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 15:56:23 GMT

See the attached. This is the combined dataset for just the first shapefile, into a file gdb.

Here is the process I did and it was pretty fast

1. Open ArcMap, load the first shapefile

2. Export this shapefile to file geodatabase (you may need to create this first).

3. In ArcMap, only have the file gdb feature class in the Table of Contents, then load all of the other shapefiles of just that file (so, the first one).

4. Open edit session for the gdb feature class.

5. Select all records from the next shapefile (like from folder two) that you have in your TOC, and then go to Edit --> Copy and then Edit --> Paste and select the feature class to paste into.

6. Repeat that for the next 8 or 9 shapefiles.

This worked for the first shapefile.

But, like Benjamin said, many of these shapefiles have broken tables which would be why you are getting errors. You may need to find the source of the data and verify that they are valid shapefiles (with good tables).

Re: How to combine multiple shapefiles of same name into fgdb

TerryWatson — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 00:35:40 GMT

Yes, I think the broken/inconsistent tables are a problem...thanks for your help everyone...I will find a workaround to get this done

--Terry