How to convert latitude/longitude Oracle database table to a State Plane coordinate system shapefile?

[ShannonGrumbly]

I have a table of almost 700,000 records that I would like to plot as points. There is an X field and Y field stored as lat/long (e.g. 40.04746, -75.233316). However, all of my other data is in NAD 1983 State Plane Pennsylvania South FIPS 3702 Feet. I cannot get the table to plot correctly over my existing data. In fact, it plots somewhere in Ohio.

So far I have tried:

• The 'Add XY Data' tool, using the Data Frame's State Plane coordinate system and inputing the X field for X and Y field for Y.
• Importing the table into Arc and right-clicking 'Display XY Data', exporting as a shapefile, and using 'Define Projection' as NAD 1983 State Plane Pennsylvania South FIPS 3702 Feet. The tool was successful but did not change the coordinates or add any new fields for re-mapping.
• Importing the table into Arc and right-clicking 'Display XY Data', exporting as a shapefile, and using 'Project' to change the output coordinate system to NAD 1983 State Plane Pennsylvania South FIPS 3702 Feet. This tool runs unsuccessfully, giving the error 'ERROR 999999: Error executing function: invalid extent for output coordinate system. Failed to execute (Project)'.

I'm not sure what else to try at this point, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[NeilAyres]

When you use the Add XY table tool or add the XY event layer to ArcMap, are you putting in the XYs / Lat/Longs in the correct way round?

for you  (e.g. 40.04746, -75.233316), in NAm that first one is the Y (Lat), 40 deg N of the equator, and the second the X (Long), 75 deg west.

[ShannonGrumbly]

I may have been putting them in the wrong way, but I just imported it again using what you suggested and the points are still plotting in Cincinnati.

[TimWitt2]

When trying to bring in the new data, are you working in the same MXD?

[ShannonGrumbly]

Yes, I have been in the same MXD, but I was importing from my Oracle Database Connection and saving shapefiles in the Default Geodatabase. Would that cause problems?

[TimWitt2 · Accepted solution]

I would open a new MXD, bring in the new data and add the ESRI basemap to see if the points plot in the right location.

Then use the Project tool, to get it into NAD.

Project—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop 

[ShannonGrumbly]

I brought it in as the normal table, added the base map, and tried to use 'Display XY Data'. If I put X as longitude and Y as latitude, it plots next to Africa. If I put X as latitude and Y as longitude, same thing!! I can't believe it.

.

[ShannonGrumbly]

I looked into it further and when I search for (-75, 40) with the 'Go To XY' tool, it only plots correctly when set as 'Decimal Degrees'. It looks like WGS_1984 uses Decimal Degrees, so I set the coordinate system of the Data Frame (in a new MXD) to WGS_1984. Now when I try to right-click 'Display XY Data', the fields to select my latitude and longitude are empty.

[ShannonGrumbly]

For some reason, all of my values were of 'String' type. I had to use Field Calculator to convert them to Float. This populated the fields in 'Display XY Data' tool.

[NeilAyres]

Well, that coordinate you gave above seems to be in the correct place.

But if you are saving the "shapefile", you cant put one of those in the default geodatabase.

Just loose the ".shp" from the name and save it as a normal feature class.