topic Re: How to symbolize analytical data that is continually updated in Data Management Questions

How to symbolize analytical data that is continually updated

DanielleG — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 14:59:06 GMT

I am using ArcMap 10.7. I have some analytical data that I want to join to locations and symbolize based on the concentrations. However, the data gets updated occasionally and so I need to be able to update the data table and have it update my symbology.

I have been joining the data to a location shapefile, but then it won't let me symbolize based on the join, so I have to export and create a new shapefile, which then does not update when I update the data in my external excel table.

Is there a better way to go about this? Thank you in advance.

Re: How to symbolize analytical data that is continually updated

ABishop — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 15:52:48 GMT

Hello Danielle,

I have a couple questions.

1. Are both of these datasets stand alone files or do any of them reside in a database?

2. Also, when you set up the symbolization, what type of field are you using?

Re: How to symbolize analytical data that is continually updated

DanielleG — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 16:04:08 GMT

Hi Amanda,

Thanks for the message. These are stand alone files in excel. I am using a numeric (double) field for symbolization.

danielle

Re: How to symbolize analytical data that is continually updated

ABishop — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 16:08:58 GMT

OK.. that may be the problem. Would you be able to experiment by putting the files into a file geodatabase? Just use the "feature class to feature class" tool for the shapefile and then the "table to table" tool for the table and then perform your join. For some reason ArcGIS desktop is picky about the FID or Global ID assignments when performing joins. The update process for your new table in the file would change, but depending on what updates you are performing it may be a simple python script or model to truncate and append the data.

Hope this helps.

Re: How to symbolize analytical data that is continually updated

DanielleG — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 19:31:06 GMT

Ah yes, thank you! I created a feature class for the locations and ended up keeping the excel table the way it was. I was then able to join the table to the feature class and symbolize accordingly.

Appreciate the quick response and help. Thanks.

Re: How to symbolize analytical data that is continually updated

ABishop — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 19:31:59 GMT

You're welcome! Glad I could help.