How to import a dataset table into Arcmap and interpret it
Dear all,
Thank you for your attention.
Running Arcmap 10.1.
I am brand new to this software and at this point I need this software to visualize the data generated from other program on the research basin.
At the moment I have a data set table in .csv which contains 603 columns. Column 1 for latitudes column 2 for longitudes, and column 3 to column 603 are data for each grid point(shown as black dots in figure 1) in 600 months. So basically my dataset is in format like this:
| y | x | month1 | month2 | month3 |
| 21.5 | 106.5 | 0.21064 | 0.070961 | 0.04823 |
| 21.5 | 107.5 | 0.11599 | 0.55193 | 0.6087 |
| 22.5 | 105.5 | 0.015563 | 0.016393 | 0.014246 |
| 22.5 | 106.5 | 0.034474 | 0.025667 | 0.002998 |
| 22.5 | 107.5 | 0.088733 | 0.71231 | 0.77644 |
There are 64 gird points and 600 months in total and each point is separated by 0.5 degrees,
I did tried to search topics like importing xyz data to arcmap and followed the instructions to add data and display xy data, but all i got is map below. I also tried to follow the Arctoolbox, but I failed at the very beginning when I tried to convert the file(Arctoolbox>3D Analyst Tools>Conversion>From File>ASCII 3D to Feature Class/Point File Information)
What I want in the end is plotting data on the map like I did in Matlab(shown in Figure 2) but in a shape more like a basin instead of mosaic one. And also in Matlab all the drawings(600 pics in this case) can be saved without doing it manually once the coding is right. Can I do this in Arcmap? I guess there is a more straightforward way to import this data and interpret it smoothly like meteorological application.
And another alternative I think is out of Arcmap and with the help of photoshop I may be able to "cut" colored area into a basin shape and batch processing in PS for 600 or even more pics. But I don't want to go to this stage really as I have this professional software that is well applied in meteorology aspect.
I do not come here if I never tried to learn and solve it by myself. Since I am totally new to this software, please don't mind if I have asked any stupid questions. 
thank you for your time and attention again.
looking forward to your answers.
Regards
figure 1: grid points and research basin:
Figure 2: mapping using the column 3 data for same area in matlab(by interpolation to a finer resolution 0.25*0.25)
To Sol,
Thank you for your reply.
I have tried to follow your suggestion and successfully import my dataset to the file file geodatabase and add the data to a layer in Arcmap. But now I have got some problems to move on.
In Arctoolbox(3D Analyst Tools>Raster Interpolation), IDW for example, it requires the input to be a "feature" file. To settle this, I tried by right click the table converted and select "Create feature class from XY table" and left "Z field" to be <none>(shown in Fig 3).
This step generated a .shp file and I used that as the input in IDW where I can select Z values to be data for any single month(shown in Fig 4).
By clicking OK I got this Fig 5. And here are my problems:
*The interpolated area is defined by the rectangular edge of the sample data points, but I want this area to cover the whole basin shown in green, i.e., how can I extend the edge of the interpolation by a little bit to cover the whole basin?
*If I want to eliminate the color map of interpolation outside of the basin, what should I do?
*The procedure above only gave an interpolation for a single month, but in my project, there are over a thousand dataset. It is merely possible to plot them manually one by one. Is there a way for batch processing and then save every single picture by coding or whatever?
Fig 3:
Fig 4:
Fig 5:
Fig 6:
Hi Sol,
Thank you for your suggestion,
I will describe the procedure clearly for someone else having the same problem like me for a reference.
I tried the clipping tool, it failed, but it worked in extract by mask tool by selecting , it finally turned out like this:
The Batch process, however, does not seem to work properly. In the table after clicking the "Batch" button, in every row I have to specify the data one by one, which is barely possible in this case because I have hundreds of dataset(months). 
And the output of this batch process is not preferable, because it will draw different dataset(months) at the same time although in different layer. If I wanna look into a certain months, I have to unclick all the other months first. Could you please come up with a solution to this?
Thanks,
Joshua
