spatial join returns with empty feature class with error 999999

[MeltemSenol-Balaban]

Hello everyone,
For 2 days I???m trying to find out what the reason was about getting first: Error 999998 after installing SP2 to ArcGIS 10 getting lately: Error 999999 together with empty feature created in my personal geodatabase. Specifically, I am using ???Spatial Join??? tool that I would like to join point data which are completely within polygon data. If I don???t change any merge rule (taking the value of ???first??? joined point data which is default by the tool) that works! Whenever I would like to do some summation or some other merge rules for some attributes of joining point data, in 14 seconds it gives this error 999999 lately. However, with the same data I can easily and successfully do it by ArcGIS version 9.3. Anyway, when I click on the link about Error 999999, it says as follows
999999 : Error executing function.
Description: This is a generic error for which the cause does not have a specific error ID. Solution: For some error cases, checking the log file for accompanying internal system errors will reveal information about the nature of the error. Otherwise, consider contacting technical support for assistance.
This directs you nowhere. Then I have checked some other forums related ???spatial joins crashes??? and ???Error 999999???. Some says it is related with operating system others related with registry. I am using Windows Vista, I don???t know how to fix it. I upgraded my PC to version 10 now for this reason I am using other PC which has 9.3 just to get results from very easy Spatial Join tool!!! And data move between computers, what a huge waste of time!!! 😞
If anyone can help me and give some suggestions, I would greatly appreciate. Thanks a lot.
Have good day???  

Meltem

[NobbirAhmed]

This may be a defect. Let me investigate. Meanwhile, if possible could you write more about your data - how many features in poly and in point feature classes, spatial reference of the data etc? If possible please share your data.

[NobbirAhmed]

I cannot repro it using large data in a personal geodatabase. Meanwhile, you can copy your data to a file geodatabase and run spatial join again - let us know if that helps.

[MeltemSenol-Balaban]

Thanks for replying. Let me explain in detail. My polygon data has approx. 43000 records with 14 fields and points are approx. 54000 records and 21 fields. After my initial thread I've continued to try different options. First thing I did is to export those feature files from my personal geodatabase to shape files. Although I decreased the number of columns, I had the same error. Once I didn't click on 'keep all target features', it worked perfectly. But of course it only gave the records of polygons that have joins from point features. What I want is to have all the polygon data some of which have extra features that come from point data I joined. Once again, still I don't understand how it is possible to do it by version 9.3. Now, what can be the reason?

many thanks in advance
meltem

[NobbirAhmed]

I ran spatial join with data similar to yours ((53,000 polygons and 65,000 points) as follows:

JOIN_ONE_TO_ONE
Field map: added a new text field and summarize field values from the point feature class.
Keep all target features (checked)
Match option: CONTAINS
All other parameters to default.

It's running successfully. What match option you are using? Have your tried after copying your data to a file geodatabase?

Sometimes changing design or fixing defects may have side effects that cause new defects. I hope this is not the case here 🙂 Before considering your issue as a defect I need to repro it locally. I'll continue investigating.

[NobbirAhmed]

CORRECTION:

Before considering your issue as a defect I need to repro it locally.

The corrected sentence would be: before logging the issue as a defect ... (NOT considering).

[MeltemSenol-Balaban]

As you suggested first I copied points and polygon files to a file geo database. And my settings as follows;

[INDENT]JOIN_ONE_TO_ONE
Keep All Target Features: (Checked)
Field Map of Join Features: Text fields target feature and join features are in default (checked as First), but some fields have summation, one of them mode, two of them is maximum.
Match Option: CONTAINS[/INDENT]

Then I run the spatial join once again. It says

[INDENT]ERROR 999999: Error executing function.
The field is not nullable. [NAME]
The field is not nullable. [DATE]
The field is not nullable. [ID_1]
The field is not nullable. [OBJE_ID_1]
�?� (there are more fields but I skipped that part)
Item not found in this collection.
Failed to execute (SpatialJoin).[/INDENT]

I have checked the field properties of point file. All of them have �??Allow NULL Values= Yes�??

Then I deleted all of those field names that were found nullable while on the Spatial Join panel and selected some of my merge rules for the rest of join features. After running once again; it says again

[INDENT]ERROR 999999: Error executing function.
Item not found in this collection.
Failed to execute (SpatialJoin).[/INDENT]

I hope it helps to repro and to find any solution...
Thanks

[NobbirAhmed]

I'm still unable to repro - tried on both 10 sp1 and sp2.

Among many scenarios, the cause of your error may be data-specific. Could you share your data?

[mikeking1]

Hi guys - I posted this in the python forum (http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/42260-Spatial-Join-Error?p=197053&viewfull=1#post197053) but think it almost exactly the same error as investigated here.  I am updating a routine analysis job that used to (and still will) execute fine in 9.3.1 but am running into unhandled errors in ArcGIS10.0 SP4

Unfortunately I have a similar issue with the maximum merge rule(but no answer as yet). I have a buffered road feature class with 4 numeric (float) fields that identify the category of buffer. I wish to spatially join these to a parcels layer so that each intersecting parcel is thereby identified by the buffer it intersects. By setting the merge rule for the numeric fields to maximum I get the maximum number of intersects for any parcel that intersects the buffer feature class - this is all very nice and works swimmingly. HOWEVER - for all of the parcels that do not intersect in the spatial join (ie too far away from the joining class) I get -3.402823e+038 calculated into the numeric fields instead of zero. It doesn't matter if I set the field precision or not or disable null values I still get -3.402823e+038 returned for non intersected parcels!?  My lead theory is that this is a floating point representation of zero returned by the underlying ArcObject (reasoned below).

The interesting thing is if I change all numeric inputs in both the target and join feature classes to short integer (as my feature classes only hold 0 or 1 for the fields of interest) instead of their original float type - the spatial join bombs out with a generic windows 9999 error and an unhandled exception written to the log file.

Presumably the only reason that this can happen is because -3.402823e+038 is a float or double type and is being returned from the underlying ArcObject - it therefore generates an error if the field to which it must be written is an invalid datatype (ie short integer). Is this a bug in the Arc10 object model? I am running ArcGIS Desktop 10.0 service pack 4.

At this point I should probably mention that the same result does not occur in 9.3.1 SP3. Certainly appreciate any light that can be shed - I'm stumped as I need the Maximum merge rule for the analysis! All my experiments are being done on cut down feature classes of only a couple of hundred features.

Apreciate any assitance

Cheers

Mike

[NobbirAhmed]

Recently Esri has posted a patch to fix some Spatial Join issues on 10 SP4 - check out whether the patch fixes you case:

http://resources.arcgis.com/content/patches-and-service-packs?fa=viewPatch&PID=160&MetaID=1857

The interesting thing is if I change all numeric inputs in both the target and join feature classes to short integer (as my feature classes only hold 0 or 1 for the fields of interest) instead of their original float type - the spatial join bombs out with a generic windows 9999 error ....

Meanwhile, to investigate the issue, I have made up data similar to yours as far as possible. Here is my buffer attribute table - is it same to your's?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]14240[/ATTACH]

My fieldmap (a short) has 4 input fields (categories from buff) and the merge rule is max.

If I'm in the wrong track - could you please provide me with the snapshot of your attribute tables (target and join) and fieldmap? If possible you can send me your data (or upload here) at nahmed@esri.com

Thanks, Nobbir