topic Convert Shape file (points) to CSV or TXT in Geoprocessing Questions

Convert Shape file (points) to CSV or TXT

MatthewMcDonald2 — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 02:00:00 GMT

I’m having some trouble with shape files.

I’ve generated a shape file (I think) from a raster by using the ‘Raster to Point’ and then ‘Extract values to points’ functions however I now need to convert the output shape file (points) into a CSV or TXT file. Ultimately I need to be able to view the data in excel (2010) such that I can see ‘point ID’, X, Y and Z in the columns of the spreadsheet.

I’m sure there is some unfathomably simple solution to this problem but I haven’t yet been able to find one on the net.

If anyone out there has any idea how to achieve this I’d greatly appreciate any help you could offer.

P.S. It would be generous to call be a novice at this stuff so if you have a solution for me please spell it out in layman’s terms.

Cheers folks

Re: Convert Shape file (points) to CSV or TXT

XanderBakker — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 02:22:04 GMT

When exporting a raster converted to points to Excel be aware that the amount of information (# of points) can be very high making it hard to manage in Excel.

I suppose that the shapefile you have does not have the X and Y columns yet, right? If that is the case, you could add them as attributes to the shapefile. Open the attribute table of the shapefile and add the fields X and Y as double fields. Right click on the column name and choose calculate geometry. Calculate the geometry property X for field X and Y for Y. You can read more about this here:

ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

Next you can use the Table to Excel tool in the conversion toolbox to convert it to an Excel file. More on the tool can be found here:

ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

What are you planning to do with the data in Excel?

Kind regards, Xander

Re: Convert Shape file (points) to CSV or TXT

MatthewMcDonald2 — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 08:10:05 GMT

Hey Xander

My apologies for the lateness of my reply. Thank you for your advice, I will give it a go as soon as I can.

I'm about to head out bush for a few weeks (wherein internet and/or electricity are scarce) so i will be unable to test immediately however i will let you know how i go ASAP.

Regards

Matt