CONVERTING TABULAR DATA FORMATS

CONVERTING TABULAR DATA FORMATS:

Data Resource Centre, University of Guelph

SNIF .TBL, CSV, TEXT TO DBASE .DBF

The purpose of this help sheet is to provide basic instructions to assist users in converting tabular data files in .tbl format (Standard NRVIS Interchange Format ? SNIF) to the standard dBase .dbf format utilized by ArcGIS software. (These instructions can also be used to convert data tables in other formats ? text, csv, excel ? into the .dbf format used in ArcGIS.)

The procedures in this document have been created using Microsoft Access 2007.

Some data packages obtained from Land Information Ontario contain tabular data in comma separated values format in files with a .tbl file extension.

The procedures, in general, for importing the tabular data to ArcGIS ArcMap:

1. Rename the .tbl files 2. Import the tabular data into Microsoft Access 3. Create a data base link using ArcCatalog 4. Add the converted .dbf tables in ArcMap 5. Add an OLE DB Connection

Detailed procedures

1. Locate .tbl files Extracting the zip file will create a file and folder structure similar to the one shown below for Municipal Lower Tier.

The .tbl files containing the tabular data are found in the spatial\geotwn and common folders.

2. Rename the .tbl files Use Windows Explorer (My Computer) to locate the .tbl files. Right click on each file with the .tbl extension and select the option, Rename. Change the file extension to .csv.

3. Create a Microsoft Access Database and import the .csv tables to the blank database. 4/5/2011 11:34:00 AM

Page 1

CONVERTING TABULAR DATA FORMATS:

Data Resource Centre, University of Guelph

SNIF .TBL, CSV, TEXT TO DBASE .DBF

a. Open Microsoft Access and select the option to create a blank database. b. Save the new database in your local directory as a Microsoft Access 2002 ? 2003

database (.mdb).

c. To add the tabular data, from the Access menu click the Get External Data button and

select the option, text. Navigate to your local directory and select the .csv table.

d. Follow the instructions outlined in the Import Text Wizard.

i. Ensure that the Delimited option is specified and comma is selected as the delimiter. On the next screen click on the First Row Contains Field Names option.

ii. On the next screen, if the Object Id field (in this case ? FMF_OBJECT_ID) is not selected, select the Object_ID field and use the Data Type drop down menu to specific data type as Double.

iii. Accept the default option to let Access add a primary key. iv. On the next screen ensure that In a New Table option is specified. Click Finish. v. Repeat the process until all the tables in .csv have been added to the database. vi. From the File Menu, save the completed database as a 2002-2003 Access

database (.mdb).

4. Adding database tables to ArcMap a. In ArcMap click the Add Data Button. Navigate to the local directory storing the Microsoft Access Database. b. Double-click the database and select the tables to be added and click the Add button.

5. Another option ? Add an OLE DB Connection. OLE DB providers generally retrieve nonspatial data only. You can preview these tables in ArcCatalog and join their values to spatial data. If an OLE DB provider can retrieve spatial data and present it in OGC format, you can preview that data in ArcCatalog. Data accessed through an OLE DB connection is read-only in ArcGIS.

To add an OLE DB connection:

1. Double-click Database Connections in the ArcCatalog tree. 2. Double-click Add OLE DB Connection. Select 3. Click the OLE DB provider - Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider. Click Next. 4. Provide the database connection by navigating to your local directory and selecting the

database. (Password is optional.) 5. Click Test Connection. 6. Click OK if the connection test was successful. 7. Type a new name for the connection. 8. Press Enter.

4/5/2011 11:34:00 AM

Page 2

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download