error merging shapefiles?

[ForrestEnglish]

I'm trying to merge 3 shapefiles.  They all have identical fields, came from the same source, they're just for different counties in my watershed.

I'm trying to combine them, and getting errors when using merge.
ERROR 000278: Failed on input OID 0, could not write value ' ' to output field NFADate

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[ChristopherStorer]

It sounds like you have a field that is restricted to non-null, which I don't believe is possible with a shapefile.  Are you writing from shapefiles to a shapefile?

[ForrestEnglish]

Yup, sure am merging shapefiles.  The original data was from a spreadsheet that I plotted based on xy data in the spreadsheet, then I exported that to a shapefile.  It's those shapefiles that I'm trying to merge.

[RaabRaab]

Hi there,

I am facing the exactly the same problem. Merging shapefiles to a new shapefile, resulting in the Error mentioned in the thread.
Are there any solutions or workarounds?

thanks,
Eike

PS:Using ArcView 10.0 SP3

[ChristopherStorer]

If there is a space in the ' ', perhaps you have a field formatted as non-text; '' and ' ' are not quite the same in that instance.

[RaabRaab]

Ok,

the problem was caused by fields which share the same name but have different domains (in my case text and integer).  And of course a text can not be merged into a integer field.

thanks,
Eike

[AissaFeldmann]

I am having the same problem (trying to merge or append simple point shapefiles) and I think it's due to (text) fields that have identical names but different lengths. I did not have this problem in Arc 9.x. Is there a way to manage this in the Field Map or elsewhere?

My only solution seems to be to re-create the problematic fields in a template shape and make them at least as large as the largest record. Help!

(Am using ArcMap 10.0, SP 2, ArcInfo)

[ReneeThompson]

Thanks for the responses to this thread, I was able to solve my issue.  I worked around error 00278 by taking a closer look at the field map(optional) in the merge tool.  You can expand the fields and find which ones may be the culprit.  The field types need to match (string, text, double, long - there cannot be a combination under the same heading).  In many cases, you may not need ALL the fields when you merge them.  So simply "X" (delete) the fields that are causing the problem.  If that is not possible...create a new field in each of the merging dataset and recalculate the values, making sure the new field has the same type of values in each dataset.  Re-merge the datasets and do not use the old field (delete it from the field map).  In my case the PDR (double) field had both double and text entries - I didn't need it so I deleted it.  Also the County (text) field had one entry that was (short).  See .jpg example.

-Good luck

[RosemaryScavotto]

I just wanted to say thank you - I was having the same issue and this totally solved it!