Joining Table to Shapefile

[PamHeinrichs]

I'm having a problem joining data from an excel spreadsheet to an existing shapefile. I am able to join the shapefile to the table, but not the other way around! The joins appear as Null values when I join from table to shapefile. The join works if I am in an edit session, but then returns to Null when I end the edit session. Has anyone encountered this? Any ideas on how to complete this join? Thanks!!

[NicoleHanson]

First off, do you have fields that are identical in the spreadsheet and the shapefile?  If so, try bringing the excel into Access, which will make it a little bit easier to join the table to shapefiles. 

If neither of those work, check to make sure you don't have extra spaces before or after the matching columns.  That will throw off the joining.

[JeffRoland]

Make sure your field names in the Excel files do no violate any typical ArcGIS and dbf field naming rules. For example:

1. do not start a field name with a number
2. No crazy characters
3. No spaces
4. keep the field names short as possible

etc...

If all else fails, use Excel to convert the spreadsheet to a dbf file. Then bring the .dbf file into ArcMap and join to the shapefile.

[JoelCalhoun]

As of Excel 2007 you can no longer save Excel files out as a .dbf.
You can however use Table to Table to convert an Excel spreadsheet to a dbf.


I hope that helps.



Joel