When opening an editing session on a shapefile, there are tools within the Editing menu that are different than the tools in ArcToolbox. For instance, the MERGE function is different between the two instances in that the MERGE in the toolbox merges two or more attribute tables, and the MERGE in the editing mode drop down merges two or more records or features. I want to use this MERGE function from the Editing session in a model or script. Anyone have any ideas or workarounds?
What I am trying to do is automate an polygon aggregation process of:
1)copying a polygon;
2)pasting it back into the attribute table;
3)merging the copied polygon with the next unique record taking the row data from the most recent record using a date field;
4)repeat;
The DISSOLVE tool removes all of my attribute data, the MERGE function only works with two or more tables.
I tried to split out my table by attribute and then copy and merge two tables, but what happens is that it retains all data from both tables, when I'm only concerned with the data from the most recent polygon.
Any pointers would be appreciated!
