Geographic and Attribute Data: Selection, Input, and Editing - Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS - page 340

Populating the Student_Info Table with Data
10. Start editing. In the Start Editing window, select Student_Info. Click OK. The table should now
allow you to enter data. 20 Start with the first student name, in the form of Anne_B. Fill in the
rest of the data for this student. Fill in data for the rest of the students.
11. Click Save Edits, then Stop Editing. Dismiss the table.
Joining the Two Tables to Make a Single Table
What you have now are two datasets. The first, the Events layer, has the geographic location of the computer
terminals. Use the Identify Results cursor to look at one point. In addition to the Easting and Northing, you
have a key value, the Computer ID that also references the student using the computer. The second dataset
is not a spatial one but contains information about students. It also has a key field, St_ID. What you want to
do now is to create a single table with both the geographic and the non-spatial information together. There
are several ways to do this. We will pick the most straightforward one: the join.
12. Right-click Coordinates.txt Events. Choose Joins and Relates > Join to bring up a Join Data
window. You want to Join attributes from a table. The key field in the layer is Comp_ID. The
table to join to the layer is Student_Info.dbf. The key field in that table is St_ID. Continue
through any warnings. Click OK.
Seeing the Results of the Join
13. Using the Identify cursor, click a point in the map display. Notice that you get information not
only about that point but the associated student information as well.
14. From the T/C, open the attribute table of Coordinates.txt Events. Notice that all the information
has been put together. Notice that, for a given record, Comp_ID and St_ID are the same.
If you now removed Coordinates.txt Events from ArcMap, or closed ArcMap (don't do either!), the joined
data would no longer be part of the table, should you ask for it again. There are two ways to make the join
permanent. The first is to save it as a layer file. The second is to export it as feature class or shapefile).
Do both in the steps that follow.
15. Right-click Coordinates.txt Events and choose Save As Layer File. Navigate to the Student_
Data_Collection folder. See Figure 5-17. In the Save Layer window, click Save.
16. Right-click Coordinates.txt Events and choose Data > Export Data, which you should put, as a
Shapefile, into the Student_Data_Collection folder. See Figure 5-18. Click OK. Do not add the
exported data to the map.
17. Ask for a new blank map. To see the first method of saving the joined table, add as data
___IGIS-Arc_ YourInitials \Student_Data_Collection
\Coordinates.txt Events.lyr
20 If you have not done the data collection part of this exercise go to the spreadsheet in [__]IGIS-Arc_AUX named
Exercise_5-8_Student_Computer_Data.xls and use the data there.