Missing columns when converting Standalone Table to dBASE using geoprocessing tools

[JamesBuckle]

I have about 100 Standalone Tables in my ArcPRO project. I need to export these en masse to allow me to run analysis on the data in R. 

My issue is that when i use the Table to dBASE geoprocessing tool (which as far as I can see is the only tool to allow me to export these all at the same time instead of one by one), the exported .dbf files are missing several crucial columns from the Standalone Tables.

I know I can use the Table to Table tool and select the columns I want included in my exported .dbf files, but as I have so many Standalone Tables that is not sustainable for my work.

Is there a way to export my tables all at once but retain all of the required columns?

Many thanks in advance

[MrRamonG]

Hello James, what data type are the attributes that are getting dropped? and how many attributes do the tables have?

[JamesBuckle]

Hi MrRamonG, thanks for the response. I think they are just a text string. The columns relate to object IDS e.g. Vascular Plant ID. The tables in Arc have 11 columns, and I believe the first 2 columns are chopped off during the export.

[VincentLaunstorfer]

Are you looking at .dbf in particular? .dbf are old-fashioned and have perhaps some limitations...

Using the Export Table Geoprocessing tool, you can explicitly specify the output file format with an extension. I would recommend trying simple .txt or .csv outputs and look if you problem is still here.

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/conversion/export-table.htm

[JamesBuckle]

Hi Vincent, I agree but ArcPRO seems set up export .dbf files in bulk whereas it doesn't with others. I have now discovered (on the advice of other commenters here) the bulk table to table tool feature but as outlined below it doesn't work as my tables all require different column names and the bulk feature tries to assign the same column names to all tables

[LindaWilliams1]

Have you tried opening the Table to Table geoprocessing tool in batch mode? From the geoprocessing pane, right click on the tool name and select Batch. You can add .txt or .csv to the Output Name string (TableToTable_%Name%.txt, for example) so that you're not limited to dBase format.

[JamesBuckle]

Hi Linda, thanks for the response. I perhaps should have mentioned that lots of the tables have different column names. I have followed your advice above and when testing have managed to export multiple tables at once. However, they now all have the same column headers as the first table in my bulk export. 

My goals really is take all of the tables as they are (different column names, different numbers of rows) and export them as they appear within Arc so that copies of all 100 or so exported and on my local machine and can then import them to R.

[JamesBuckle · Accepted solution]

This is now solved by using the ModelBuilder tool within ArcPro to Iterate multiple tables and convert to excel sheets on mass.