Joint Points to Polygons

Bryan_Wade

I am trying to join points to polygons. To be more precise, I have a dataset with points associated with a disaster. Each point comes with latitude and longitude and other information. And I have a shapefile that has polygons that have census data information.

I do a spatial join on ArcGIS, joining points to polygons. I have the same projection in both files. But when the join is completed, the data from the polygons does not appear in the joint file. I have the corresponding columns, e.g., all info comes with 0's. Also, the polygons do not show up on the Map.

I am using the spatial join with the point layer as the target features and the census tracts as the join features.

Any suggestions why this happens and how can I fix it?

DavidPike

Just to be clear - you want to transfer the attributes of the census polygons to the points?

What do you mean by 'the polygons do not show on the map'? Do you mean they don't show on the map when you display the original census data on the map? otherwise - if you mean where are the polygons in the output feature class then the target is points and only the attributes (not geometry - as it's either a point or a polygon, not both) of the join layer (census polygons) are transferred to the target point layer.

i.e. I'm assuming you just want the census area attribute transferred to the points so I don't understand the 'polygons' not displaying part. If they don't display from the outset - then that's the issue.

You could run a Check Geometry and Repair Geometry on both features, but I'd first reference your data in the Geoprocessing tool by selecting it from the file browser option or dragging from the Catalog pane. This stops any layer issues such as definition queries/filters etc.

I'd also look at your filenames and ensure they have no strange characters or spaces, and are stored as Geodatabase Feature Classes. Also change the output file location to a local drive rather than OneDrive etc. and again make it a Feature Class inside a Geodatabase.

I'd also be tempted to just use the 'Intersect' spatial relationship option rather than 'Within'

View solution in original post

DavidPike

Just to be clear - you want to transfer the attributes of the census polygons to the points?

What do you mean by 'the polygons do not show on the map'? Do you mean they don't show on the map when you display the original census data on the map? otherwise - if you mean where are the polygons in the output feature class then the target is points and only the attributes (not geometry - as it's either a point or a polygon, not both) of the join layer (census polygons) are transferred to the target point layer.

i.e. I'm assuming you just want the census area attribute transferred to the points so I don't understand the 'polygons' not displaying part. If they don't display from the outset - then that's the issue.

You could run a Check Geometry and Repair Geometry on both features, but I'd first reference your data in the Geoprocessing tool by selecting it from the file browser option or dragging from the Catalog pane. This stops any layer issues such as definition queries/filters etc.

I'd also look at your filenames and ensure they have no strange characters or spaces, and are stored as Geodatabase Feature Classes. Also change the output file location to a local drive rather than OneDrive etc. and again make it a Feature Class inside a Geodatabase.

I'd also be tempted to just use the 'Intersect' spatial relationship option rather than 'Within'