topic Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files in Geoprocessing Questions

Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

MikeHenson — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:13:14 GMT

Getting desparate now! Can someone take a look at these 2 files and try to get them combined. They are shape files of manholes surveyed by 2 different surveyors and I cant seem to get them combined into 1 file. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

TimWitt — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:25:33 GMT

Mike,

the issue lies within the field "bench_cond". In one of your shapefiles it is setup as a string field and in your other shapefile it is setup as a short field. Meaning it can't combine your words into the number field. Rename one of your fields (add a new field with a new name and calculate the new field with the old field and then delete the old field). Or setup both fields to allow numbers and strings, if you need them combined.

The same thing happens with your "through_con" field. It might be all your condition fields actually, since in one shapefile they use numbers as conditions and in the other one words.

Tim

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

MikeHenson — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:30:27 GMT

thanks...I will try that. Can you tell me how you determined that? How did you evaluate the tables ?

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

TimWitt — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:34:43 GMT

I put both shapefiles in a MXD, ran a merge and looked up the error number which states:

"A value could not be added to the output field. For example, text values cannot be added to numeric fields, and text values cannot be added to text fields if the values are longer than the field length."

You can rightclick each field in the attribute table and see in properties what type of field it is.

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

MikeHenson — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 15:09:15 GMT

ok so I did that and get the error Input feature 0: falls outside of output geometry domains.

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

TimWitt — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:07:01 GMT

can you upload the 2 changed files?

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

MikeHenson — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:58:58 GMT

Tim...the rjn file was edited to make the bench cond field a text field. I left the other (all manholes) as it was. I really do appreciate your help on this.

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

TimWitt — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:08:21 GMT

Mike,

I was able to successfully merge it. Just make sure you save your output as a shapefile (in the output box type merge.shp)

I have attached the successful merge.

Tim

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

MikeHenson — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:11:21 GMT

Tim....did you not get the error at all? If not, what could be causing it on my end?

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

TimWitt — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:13:59 GMT

I got the error when I tried to save my output in a geodatabase, which might have something to do with this.

Did you try to save the output as a shapefile or as a feature class in a geodatabase?

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

MikeHenson — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:27:28 GMT

Tim....
I just tried to merge the rjnexport file with the allmanholes file. I set the export file to a shapefile. The results show me being successful, but after looking at the attribute table, only the 100 from the rjn file are in the new file. Getting very frustrating! Sorry to keep bothering you but do you have an idea what might be happening here?

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

TimWitt — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:44:36 GMT

I don't know to be honest, did you look at my attachment? I think when I did it, it worked.

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

MikeHenson — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:57:03 GMT

tim...your did just what I wanted. I started me a new map and imported both shape files into it. The merge failed the first time, but I changed the order of which file I chose first, for the merge, and it worked. I have no idea why that would matter, but it did. Just seems sketchy to me that it would work one time and not the next. Anyway....I really do appreciate the time/help you put to this. Merry Christmas!

Mike

Re: Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

TimWitt — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 18:01:59 GMT

No problem! Don;t forget to use the grey checkmark next to the post that answered your question 🙂

Merry Christmas!