Exercise 2: Import data into your geodatabase

Complexity:

Beginner

Data Requirement:

ArcGIS Tutorial Data for Desktop

Goal:

Import a coverage and INFO table. Create aliases for a feature class and its fields, and rename fields.

Before you can start adding behavior to your data, you must move it into a geodatabase. You will import two datasets into the Montgomery geodatabase—laterals and owners.dat.

The laterals coverage contains water laterals for the Montgomery water dataset, and the owner table contains owner information for the parcel features already in the geodatabase.

Import a coverage

1. In the Catalog window, right-click the Water feature dataset in the Montgomery geodatabase, point to Import, and click Feature Class (multiple).

   This tool is used to specify your input coverage, output geodatabase, and output feature class. Because you opened this tool by right-clicking a feature dataset, the output geodatabase, Montgomery, and feature dataset, Water, are already filled in for you.

2. Click the Open button , browse to the arc feature class in the laterals coverage, and click Add.
3. Click OK to run the Feature Class To Geodatabase (multiple) tool.

   While the tool is running, a progress bar appears in the lower right corner of ArcMap. When the tool completes, a pop-up message appears. You can click this to open the Results pane to see any messages that were generated while running the tool. When the tool completes successfully, the feature class is added to the map.

   The laterals_arc feature class is now in the Water feature dataset and has been added to the map.

4. Right-click the Laterals feature class in the Table Of Contents and click Remove to remove it from the map.
5. Click the laterals_arc feature class in the Montgomery geodatabase in the Catalog window.
6. Press the F2 key and type Laterals to rename the feature class.

Create aliases and rename fields

The geodatabase lets you create aliases for fields, tables, and feature classes. An alias is an alternative name to refer to those items. Unlike true names, aliases can contain special characters, such as spaces, because they don't have to adhere to the database's object name limitations.

When you use data with aliases in ArcMap, the alias name is automatically used for feature classes, tables, and fields. However, in the Catalog, these items are always represented by their true names.

You can also rename fields by typing new names for them.

You will now create aliases for your new feature class and some of its fields. You will rename other fields in the feature class.

1. Right-click the Laterals feature class in the Water feature dataset and click Properties.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Type Water laterals in the Alias text box.
4. Click the Fields tab.
5. Click the OBJECTID field and type Feature identifier as its alias under Field Properties.
6. Repeat this process to assign aliases to the following fields:

   Field	Alias
   Shape	Geometry field
   TYPECODE	Subtype code

7. Some of the fields were truncated in the source data. You can rename fields to fix that. Double-click each of the following field names and type a complete name in the Field Name field. Note that there are no spaces in the field names.

   Field	Rename
   DEPTH_BURI	DepthBuried
   RECORDED_L	RecordedLength
   FACILITY_I	FacilityID
   DATE_INSTA	InstallationDate

8. When you finish adding all the aliases and renaming fields, click OK to close the Feature Class Properties dialog box and apply your changes.

Now that you have imported the Laterals feature class into the geodatabase, added some aliases, and renamed fields, you are ready to import the owner table.

Import a table

The owners.dat INFO table contains owner information for the parcels in the Parcels feature class in the Montgomery geodatabase. To create relationships between the parcels and their owners, the owner information must be imported into the Montgomery geodatabase. Use the Table to Table tool to import the owners.dat INFO table into the Montgomery geodatabase. Next, create aliases for the table.

1. Right-click the Montgomery geodatabase, point to Import, and click Table (single).
2. Make the Catalog window active, and drag and drop the owners.dat table from the Catalog tree to the Input Rows text box.
3. Type Owners in the Output Table text box.
4. Click OK.
5. When the tool finishes, remove it from the map by right-clicking it in the Table of Contents.
6. In the Montgomery geodatabase in the Catalog window, right-click the Owners table and click Properties to see the properties of the table.
7. Click the General tab if it is not already showing.
8. Type Parcel owners for the alias for this table.
9. Click the Fields tab and type the following field aliases:

   Field	Alias
   OBJECTID	Object identifier
   OWNER_NAME	Owner name
   OWNER_PERCENT	Percentage ownership
   DEED_DATE	Date of deed

10. Click OK.

The data in the laterals coverage and owners.dat table is now in the Montgomery geodatabase.

Now you can take advantage of the geodatabase by applying behavior to your data. You will begin this task by creating subtypes and attribute domains.