Can someone suggest a combination of tools that will let me copy a field from one feature class into another where the fields meet certain conditions? I have two feature classes in a file geodatabase.
First, I've tried to use Make Query Table to join the tables and then Calculate Field on the query view. Although Make Query Table exhibits some undesirable behavior (it uses whe wrong syntax for a file geodatabase, putting quote marks around the fields), you can edit the query expression directly (i.e. remove the quotes) and successfully create the query view. Make Query View also does not let you specify field aliases. It lets you type an alias in but always reverts the string back to the default.
Calculate Field lets you specify the query table as the input, but when you try to run it, it reports that one of the join fields (the key field in the destination table) cannot be found.
I've also tried making a feature layer out of each feature class, then using Create Join to add the source layer to the destination layer. Calculate Field will let you update the entire joined layer, but there doesn't appear to be any way to filter the join before updating. Trying to update a query table based on the joined layer yield the same error as trying to update the query table by itself.
I can do this in ArcMap, but only in an edit session (I get a warning that updating a many-to-one join requires an edit session). I really need to be able to automate this process.
