Trouble adding XY data

[KevinDoyle]

Hello,

I'm a college student just becoming familiar with all of the facets of GIS software. I have a lot to learn so bare with me.  I'm currently doing a project that calls for me to obtain lat/long coordinates from a website.  What I did was right click on the tables shown in the website and exported them to excel.  Now I have my data.  I go into ArcMap to add the XY data. (File>Add Data>Add X,Y data). Once I add my data (excel sheet 1) it comes up in the T.O.C however on the map itself it appears only as one point.  Rather than, oh i dont know, the 200 different points included in the excel table data.  I do not know if it is because I'm not using the right projection or coordinate system or if the points need to be converted into a different format or what. I have never used these forums before so I guess I'm being pretty vague until someone responds to this thread so I know that it works. Someone please help!!! This is my final project for school!! Thanks.

[KevinDoyle]

OK. So I tried following the instructions as provided on the site you've provided.  It was for adding data with 9.2, however everything pretty much seems to be the same (with the exception that 9.2 doesn't allow you to add Excel files, whereas 10 does).  The only thing I could see in this walk-through that I didn't already do was to change the projected coordinate system to:

NAD 1983 UTM Zone 10N

    AND I ALSO TRIED

WGS84 UTM Zone 10N

But I got an error message.  This is becoming more and more confusing to me.  I attached a photo of the error message that popped up.

[KevinDoyle]

Can anyone see anything wrong with my Excel sheet?

[TimothyHales]

Hey Kevin,

I tried out the Excel table and got the same results you did. The points showed up at 0,0. I believe there is something wrong with the spreadsheet. I'm not sure if it is the table or a format issue; however, I was able to get it to work. From ArcMap I exported the Excel table to a .dbf table. The new .dbf table displayed the points in the correct location when using the Display XY Data function. Try that out and let me know if it works.

[LeonardWilliamson]

The field names all have spaces at the end.  Once I removed the spaces, the data loads and the xy events display in the correct locations.

[KevinDoyle]

Hey Kevin,

I tried out the Excel table and got the same results you did. The points showed up at 0,0. I believe there is something wrong with the spreadsheet. I'm not sure if it is the table or a format issue; however, I was able to get it to work. From ArcMap I exported the Excel table to a .dbf table. The new .dbf table displayed the points in the correct location when using the Display XY Data function. Try that out and let me know if it works.

Thank you! What you said worked, as did Lenny's advice (comment below this one).

[KevinDoyle]

The field names all have spaces at the end.  Once I removed the spaces, the data loads and the xy events display in the correct locations.

Thank you. You're help is appreciated!