ArcMap Drawing Errors: A Column was specified that does not exist

[Peter_J_Armstrong]

Hello there,

I am in need of assistance. I deleted a "column" in the attribute table and this column was essentially tied to everything. I realized immediately that I had made a mistake so I closed ArcMap without saving changes in order to not save my said mistake. I reopened ArcMap and I believe the column is there...however I am now receiving an error message "ArcMap Drawing Errors: A Column was specified that does not exist."

Can anyone provide insight as to what i need to do to restore the former configuration? Your insight and assistance is greatly appreciated!

[DanPatterson_Retired]

Not clear from your description, but I assume you opened the table to confirm whether the fields is there or not? And were you in edit mode or not? since there is usually a warning on field deletion outside an edit session

[Peter_J_Armstrong]

HI Dan,

Yes, I believe the field is there…

[Peter_J_Armstrong]

Good question regarding editing mode...not entirely certain, but I do not recall getting a warning about deleting the column..

[DanPatterson_Retired]

right-click on the layer, select Open Attribute Table... it is either there or not.  If it is not, then there is no undelete once the project is closed, but you can copy your attributes over from a backup if you have one

[Peter_J_Armstrong]

Thanks, Dan. So I can confirm I did indeed delete said column and it is not there. How would I go about adding it back? Since it is only one column/attribute? I do have an Excel sheet with the data....

[DanPatterson_Retired]

You need to 'join' the data back with the table.  Several variants on how to do this

http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/tools/data-management-toolbox/join-field.htm

http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/tools/data-management-toolbox/add-join.htm

and the obvious table contents shortcuts, if you have found them..

You will need a 'key' fields (an ID field for instance) to provide the joining mechanism.  Read the details before trying this for the first time,

[Peter_J_Armstrong]

Thank you, Dan! I will give it try.