Need X,Y coordinates from point file

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10-11-2012 11:59 AM
chadhickman
Occasional Contributor III
I have a shapefile that contains several points but the attribute table does not display the actual coordinates (X,Y). I was just wondering if some knew a quick way in ArcMap to get the coordinates information? Is there a tool in the ArcToolbox to do this?

Thanks!
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5 Replies
T__WayneWhitley
Frequent Contributor
Yes of course...glad you mentioned ArcToolbox.  The tool is the 1st one under the Features toolset:
Data Management Tools.tbx >> Features >> Add XY Coordinates


One very nice thing about this tool is that it automatically adds the fields (Point_x, Point_y, etc.) if you don't have them already in the attribute table - even adds the Z and M fields, if your dataset is so enabled.  Even 'updates' these fields, if necessary, on subsequent runs of the tool (I just tested this).

Incidentally, if you already have X and Y fields defined and you wanted to maintain them, you can optionally use 'Calculate Geometry' from within ArcMap.  (Right-click on the field header and select the appropriate value to calculate - have to run the field calculations separately, though.)
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chadhickman
Occasional Contributor III
Wayne,

I think you may have misunderstood the question. I already have the shapefile and I am able to display the points on my map, what I need to the actually X,Y coordinates in numerical form.
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T__WayneWhitley
Frequent Contributor
Yes, so if you need the numerical values to be added to the attribute table of the shapefile, Add XY Coordinates does what you ask.
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AlexeyTereshenkov
Regular Contributor III
Yeah, the tool Wayne proposed does what you need. Another simple way to calculate the XY coordinates as outlined by Wayne is to create two fields on your own in the attribute table in ArcMap, then right-click each of them and choose Calculate Geometry where you could choose to calculate X- and Y-coordinate.
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myname
by
New Contributor III

You can use Geometry calculate to get XY coordinate of points, you can see here calculate xy coordinate points in ArcGIS - YouTube  

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