Repair Data Source to Selection Layers

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03-01-2016 04:44 PM
CamillaKaramanlis
New Contributor

I recently was asked to create a supplementary map showing data that I had until that moment thought I was not ever going to need to revisit. I had archived the .mxd I originally used, moving it off our server. This caused the data sources to become corrupted, but no biggy, I had the original feature classes to repair them with, right? Not so much. I had selected out very precisely multiple sets of line features (pipeline data in reference to certain tracts/projects) and made selection layers from one original feature class. When I went to repair the original feature class I made the selections from, it automatically repaired the subsequent selection layers. Looking at the selection layers, it appears that somehow the data didn't repair correctly (i.e. I know roughly where the pipe should be for each project, and the repaired layer is including line features sporadically that don't accurately reflect the original selection).

Does anyone know why this is happening and if there is any last ditch effort I can try before having to start from scratch?

Thanks in advance!

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2 Replies
DanaNolan
Occasional Contributor III

If by "selection layer" you mean using the selection/save as selection layer, and not a definition query or join-based select, then I don't have a lot of hope.

I stopped using these years ago, as they are unstable. I believe they store a hash-table of the selected keys (ObjectiDs?). These seem to disappear when the layer is changed, so then everything is selected. I have never heard of the wrong records being selected, but it would make sense that that happens sometimes too.

Next time, you could try exporting the keys of your chosen records to a file, then using a join to do your selection from your original file. This is kludgy, but reliable.

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CamillaKaramanlis
New Contributor

Yeah, I believe I just quickly created layers from selected features. Thank you for the tip, I definitely learned my lesson!

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