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  • Lection D: The content of a cell does not correspond to the set column format

Lection D: The content of a cell does not correspond to the set column format


Assignment: Apply different possibilities of formatting in Excel and transfer the data to ArcGIS. The focus lies on the error message you will receive if the format is incompatible. You will learn when this error message will appear and how you can deal with it.
 
 
1. Switch to your Excel table. In column E ‘Inhabitants_2011b’ replace the number of inhabitants of Hamburg-Nord with the abbreviation ‘n.a.’ (not available).
 
 
 
2. Transfer your data to your connected Feature Class using the button ‘Transfer all data’. You will receive the following error message:
 
 

Information
Column E is formatted as a ‘Number’; however, the abbreviation ‘n.a.’ is a text. Excel accepts such inputs even though the content is inconsistent to the set column format. In an ArcGIS attribute table, it is impossible to insert text into 'Number' columns. Therefore, the GISconnector cannot transfer this text to ArcGIS and displays an error message accordingly.

 
 
3. Confirm the error message with ‘Ok’.
 
 
4. Switch to ArcGIS. Try to transfer all data in ArcGIS as well. You will receive the same error message as in Excel. Click ‘Ok’.
 
 
5. Switch back to Excel. Remove the mistake while deleting the complete content in cell E4. The cell should be completely empty now. Transfer all data to ArcGIS again.
 
 
 
6. The GISconnector will transfer your data and open your ArcMap project. Open the attribute table of the layer ‘Districts’. In column ‘Inhabitants_2011b’ you can see that the cell, where you deleted your data contains <null> now, which means there is no input available.
 
 

Information
If you have missing values in a row of numbers, we recommend to leave these cells empty. Empty cells will be assigned with <null> in attribute tables. In that way you will not create an incompatibility.