Trouble merging/appending these 2 files

2279
13
Jump to solution
12-20-2013 06:13 AM
MikeHenson
Occasional Contributor
Getting desparate now! Can someone take a look at these 2 files and try to get them combined. They are shape files of manholes surveyed by 2 different surveyors and I cant seem to get them combined into 1 file. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
MikeHenson
Occasional Contributor
tim...your did just what I wanted. I started me a new map and imported both shape files into it. The merge failed the first time, but I changed the order of which file I chose first, for the merge, and it worked. I have no idea why that would matter, but it did. Just seems sketchy to me that it would work one time and not the next. Anyway....I really do appreciate the time/help you put to this. Merry Christmas!

Mike

View solution in original post

0 Kudos
13 Replies
TimWitt
Frequent Contributor
Mike,

the issue lies within the field "bench_cond". In one of your shapefiles it is setup as a string field and in your other shapefile it is setup as a short field. Meaning it can't combine your words into the number field. Rename one of your fields (add a new field with a new name and calculate the new field with the old field and then delete the old field). Or setup both fields to allow numbers and strings, if you need them combined.

The same thing happens with your "through_con" field. It might be all your condition fields actually, since in one shapefile they use numbers as conditions and in the other one words.

Tim
0 Kudos
MikeHenson
Occasional Contributor
thanks...I will try that. Can you tell me how you determined that? How did you evaluate the tables ?
0 Kudos
TimWitt
Frequent Contributor
I put both shapefiles in a MXD, ran a merge and looked up the error number which states:

"A value could not be added to the output field. For example, text values cannot be added to numeric fields, and text values cannot be added to text fields if the values are longer than the field length."

You can rightclick each field in the attribute table and see in properties what type of field it is.
0 Kudos
MikeHenson
Occasional Contributor
ok so I did that and get the error Input feature 0: falls outside of output geometry domains.
0 Kudos
TimWitt
Frequent Contributor
can you upload the 2 changed files?
0 Kudos
MikeHenson
Occasional Contributor
Tim...the rjn file was edited to make the bench cond field a text field. I left the other (all manholes) as it was. I really do appreciate your help on this.
0 Kudos
TimWitt
Frequent Contributor
Mike,

I was able to successfully merge it. Just make sure you save your output as a shapefile (in the output box type merge.shp)

I have attached the successful merge.

Tim
0 Kudos
MikeHenson
Occasional Contributor
Tim....did you not get the error at all?  If not, what could be causing it on my end?
0 Kudos
TimWitt
Frequent Contributor
I got the error when I tried to save my output in a geodatabase, which might have something to do with this.

Did you try to save the output as a shapefile or as a feature class in a geodatabase?
0 Kudos