How do I discern the correct Census Tract to Join to my Excel .CSV

706
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04-25-2017 02:16 PM
TimothyWendeborn
New Contributor

Hi,

I've attached both of the files I based the join on. The result added Census Data for another part of the state. Im missing something. Thanks for any help. The blacked out columns include offenders personal addresses addresses.

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6 Replies
ITDGIS
by
New Contributor

What fields are you using in the join?

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TimothyWendeborn
New Contributor

I put both tables into the default gdb and used the ObjectID. That was after attempting to join the crime data table many times to other tables with no success. So I either selected the wrong census file or Im not setting up my table correctly, I guess?

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curtvprice
MVP Esteemed Contributor

Tim you should delete that worksheet column and repost, it is still easily visible to anyone that would want to see it.

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curtvprice
MVP Esteemed Contributor

Tim: The join field you should be using is GEOID. Unfortunately the GEOIDs in the two files are from different states.

Understanding Geographic Identifiers - Geography - U.S. Census Bureau 

OBJECTID is not a valid join field, it is the internally managed ID for every geodatabase table and in most cases should be avoided for joins because it can be modified by the system.

curtvprice
MVP Esteemed Contributor

I take that back, the GEOID in these files seems to start after the text US. I think 14 and 15 are different years or something.

So what you need to do to join the tables is to add a new text field in both tables for Census tract, and calculate it to the matching Census GEOID. I think the easiest way is using a Python expression, like this, which starts at the 10th character and drops off the last digit, which is apparently census block group.

!GEOID![9:-1]

TimothyWendeborn
New Contributor

Thank you sir. Sorry for late reply.

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