topic Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks in Mapping Questions

Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 03:39:06 GMT

Hello All,

I am using ArcMap 10 and wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase
tool than I am expecting (I am thinking they ought to be identical but maybe I am wrong?). What are the possible reason for
created layer ending up with a different number of records in attribute table compared to original?

I copied a Feature Layer from an SDE geodatabase to a Feature Layer of a newly created blank file geodatabase

using the ArcMap built in tool called Feature Class to Geodatabase but for some reason when I open up the attribute

table of the created Feature Layer, I am seeing that it has double the number of records as the original ...

I am somewhat new to Arcmap but from what I have seen as the result of my previous run of the same tool (Feature Class to Geodatabase)
on other feature layers, I always end up with an identical number of records which therefore is what I have learned to expect at this point in my
learning.

Wondering what I need to watch out for so that I am guaranteed to always have identical number of features in both the original and created Feature Class when running the above tool?

All help and advise greatly appreciated ... thanks.

Gratefully,

Ric

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

DanPatterson_Retired — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 14:53:25 GMT

what is the number difference?

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 00:14:45 GMT

Thanks for your response ...

When I do an open attribute on the source feature class the total number of attributes I am seeing is 515367
whereas the feature class created from it is 1030734 in the file geodatabase ... a difference of 515367 .... hence the original number records is doubled ...

I tried many times doing it (each cycle taking about three hours) unfortunately I keep ending up with the same problem and I do not have any clue why all the other layers are behaving normally (i.e. giving resulting identical number of records as the source) whereas the "evil" feature class with 515367 records keeps on giving problems ... thanks again, I really appreciate it.

Gratefully,
Ric

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 00:45:06 GMT

ruling out the proximity to Hallowe'en...try a small selection of the file, save it and then bring it in and see if the problem persists. Even try 2 records, 4, 18, 32, 64, 128 etc. I am wondering if it is happening to all cases or just when you try to bring them all in.

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

curtvprice — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 05:02:08 GMT

I'm thinking these are probably polygons, some of which are very small - which can cause geometry to collapse when cast in the new feature class. A fix to try is to set the XY Resolution environment setting to a small value and see if you lose fewer records.

I'm with Dan in suggesting you work with a subset, even 1% of the data - much easier to debug with a smaller group.

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 07:41:04 GMT

Thanks so much for the valuable tip, I find comfort in ruling out

proximity to halloween and possibly even the blood moon from a few

weeks back .

I will go and try out the technique you mentioned to try to see what

will happen .. thanks again.

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 08:22:17 GMT

Thanks for your valuable response ... I will go and dig deeper into the XY Resolution thing

and try to vary it to see how the number of records in the created feature class responds ..

An additional detail which I do not know if useful or not, but could possibly give a clue is

the type of objects I have. Currently I have them as points ... I am thinking to myself

that owing to my limited knowledge there might be some quirk behavior related to point objects

which I do not know about but which someone with more experience than me is aware of?

Thanks again for all the help .. I really appreciate it.

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 08:35:52 GMT

>>if you lose fewer records

Thanks again for helping me out .. I really appreciate it.

Sorry I forgot to mention, as it sits right now, before changing XY Resolution … more records are are ending up in the new feature class created from the original … so I am thinking it seems to be adding records .. thanks again

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 15:55:30 GMT

Looks like it is happening in all cases ... I tried what you suggested I selected just 4 entities using 'Select by Attributes' putting in there a criteria that is supposed to return exactly 4 records (I am using an attribute that is supposed to be unique). At which point something weird becomes obvious right away ... because with the attribute table open I can see 4 records highlighted automatically owing to the selection criteria I made but when I look closely at the bottom of the same table with the "Show selected records" active what it says is (8 out of *2000 Selected) which shows a strange mismatch right away.

I then proceeded to use the 'Copy Features(Data Management) Tool' with the selection still active and to my surprise 8 records are generated instead of 4. Four of which records are exact duplicates of the other four. Wondering if this gives the necessary clue you wanted to see? ... Thanks again for all the help ... I really appreciate it.

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:03:34 GMT

Hello and thanks again .. .I did what you and Dan suggested and so far here is what I am seeing:

I selected just 4 entities using 'Select by Attributes' putting in there a criteria that is supposed to return exactly 4 records (I am using an attribute that is supposed to be unique). At which point something weird becomes obvious right away ... because with the attribute table open I can see 4 records highlighted automatically owing to the selection criteria I made but when I look closely at the bottom of the same table with the "Show selected records" active what it says is (8 out of *2000 Selected) which shows a strange mismatch right away.

I then proceeded to use the 'Copy Features(Data Management) Tool' with the selection still active and to my surprise 8 records are generated instead of 4. Four of which records are exact duplicates of the other four. At this point I am moving to try to dig deeper into the XY Resolution thing you kindly shared with me ... thanks again for all the help ... I really appreciate it.

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:27:11 GMT

strange, if the features were duplicated, then you would expect to see the same records duplicated. In the table that had the duplicate records, where they all at the end or one after the other? ie record 0 was also record 1...record 2 was also record 3 etc etc ? In either case, you could get rid of the duplicates within a copy of the file

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:03:40 GMT

Yes, the records are exactly in the sequence it appears in the original and then repeated in the exact sequence at the end of the records shown in the attribute table so that the records in the original is record1, record2, record3, record4 (left to right corresponding to top to bottom reading) whereas the table with duplicates read thus: record1, record2, record3, record4, record1, record2, record3, record4 ... R

Right now I am thinking of running a tool called Delete Identical (Data Management) ... I am trying to buy a license for it (it needs advanced) ... based on your experience ... would you be doing the same thing if you were in my shoes or is there a more appropriate way of doing it? .. Thanks again

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:12:36 GMT

Wow...I can't believe that the objected field has duplicate records! If the last part is a duplicate, I would select the good ones and export to a new file before I spent any money. I would go back to the source where you created the file in the first place and try again with a subsample first to test the principles...perhaps on another dataset...if you get this weirdness again, then the fault is in getting the data in the first place. So if you can't subset on unique ID's either via a query (ie objected less than ???) or manually selecting it is too much, then go back to the source.

Re: Wondering why I am getting more attribute records when running Feature Class to Geodatabase tools than expected ... thanks

RicM — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 02:26:34 GMT

Thanks so much for all your help ... your technique worked like a charm .. I owe you big time ... thanks again