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.txt to .dbf (output is corrupted, can't be opened in ArcMap)

  • January 28, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 27 views

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Established a workflow to convert address points .txt file to .dbf in order to add x,y point in ArcMap. Was able to do an expression fanout that would classify my address points by province (individual folders), but the output is not readable in ArcMap. Any clues? did I miss a step somewhere? Also, if I choose the reader as an .txt, (my file extension is .txt), the reader fails to read my file, I have to choose .csv instead.... also another thing I don't understand...

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2 replies

redgeographics
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  • Celebrity
  • 3702 replies
  • January 28, 2019

If your text file has data in columns you'll need to use the CSV reader as that is set up to turn those columns into attributes. A CSV is ultimately just plain text (which is why the .txt extension is confusing, but not exactly wrong).

If you have columns with x and y values in your text file you can use a VertexCreator to build points (or tell the CSV reader to treat the x and y values as such so it will build points automatically) and then write out to a Shapefile instead of a DBF, this way it'll probably be easier to open in ArcMap.

Other than that, without seeing your data and workspace it's really hard to say why your DBF can't be opened in ArcMap, if you can share them we may be able to tell you what's up.


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  • Author
  • 3 replies
  • January 28, 2019

If your text file has data in columns you'll need to use the CSV reader as that is set up to turn those columns into attributes. A CSV is ultimately just plain text (which is why the .txt extension is confusing, but not exactly wrong).

If you have columns with x and y values in your text file you can use a VertexCreator to build points (or tell the CSV reader to treat the x and y values as such so it will build points automatically) and then write out to a Shapefile instead of a DBF, this way it'll probably be easier to open in ArcMap.

Other than that, without seeing your data and workspace it's really hard to say why your DBF can't be opened in ArcMap, if you can share them we may be able to tell you what's up.

very helpful! I will try the VertexCreator way and see if it works, otherwise, I will try to share my data and maybe you can help. cheers!