topic Application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files; in Developers Questions

Application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files;

hannajebea — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 04:51:28 GMT

Hello

I am trying to build utility application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files can some one help me please

thanks

Re: Application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files;

DerekLaw — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 20:33:22 GMT

Hi Hanna,

> ... build utility application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files

What do you mean by "Esri ArcGis compatible files"? Feature classes? Map documents? Suggest you review the list of supported file types, Supported data types and items—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop

Also, this is not the correct discussion forum, I will move from the Portal for ArcGIS forum to the Developers forum.

Hope this helps,

Re: Application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files;

RebeccaStrauch__GISP — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 22:20:11 GMT

As Derek mentioned, addtional information would help. Are you using Desktop or Pro? Version?

Text files? are the .csv (comma separated), or fixed format (i.e. columns)...or totally free form?

Using Python/arcpy would probably be the place to start, but without know the actual input format, it will be touch to give any specifics. I'll tag https://community.esri.com/community/developers/gis-developers/python?sr=search&searchId=3224a669-e577-4f4b-b612-b83e64ae94f3&searchIndex=0‌ https://community.esri.com/groups/arcgis-python-api?sr=search&searchId=e5266b30-787e-4465-a319-2d3499a14877&searchIndex=3‌ https://community.esri.com/groups/python-snippets?sr=search&searchId=e5266b30-787e-4465-a319-2d3499a14877&searchIndex=1‌ for a bit more exposure.

Re: Application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files;

hannajebea — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:24:08 GMT

thanks derek and rebeka am trying to develop application read text any format and generate shapefile

Re: Application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files;

DerekLaw — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:34:37 GMT

Hi Hanna,

Thanks for the clarification. Some resources to get you started,

Hope this helps,

Re: Application that will read some text files and generate Esri Arc Gis compatible files;

RebeccaStrauch__GISP — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:36:43 GMT

"any text" is probably not might not be possible.

If it is a point file, typically you will have an ID, x, y at a minimum. You would also need to know whether they are geographic coords (e.g. longitude, latitude for x/y) or in a projected system, and for them to match up you would need to have this information included in some part of the process.

A line would have a series of coordinates. A polygon would be the same, but with the start and stop point the same. You may want to look at wiki.gis.com and some of the definitions of what type of information is needed for data....maybe in the dictionary tab. It would most likely explain the different types better than I did.

So the question is, do you have a way to pull the information you will need to build data from the "any text" file if there is no known formatting of this information?

This could be, yes....but there would most likely need to be some type of pattern to the data.

What language are you using for the utility? What ArcGIS software are you using??

fyi - the shapefile, although older, would probably be the easiest datatype to create if not using either of the above. I think there are open-source libraries for creating those.