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If arcgis is automatically coverting string values to numeric variables in a text document generated by stata, how do you change those variables back into string? I tried opening up the fields under properties in arccatalog and it says I cannot change them because the tables are not empty

PolyGeo
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Alex
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1 Answers1

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ArcGIS reads the first 8 (maybe 11?) rows of data to determine what the data type should be for each field. Kind of a hackish workaround, but you could make some dummy rows for that and populate it with alphabetic characters. Then delete the rows once imported. Another method would be to add a new text field, and use Field Calculator to cast the values from the problem column back to text.

I'm thinking there's a better way, but my brain isn't retrieving it right now, sorry.

recurvata
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  • That seems to work, except now I'm having issues deleting the rows once imported. How do you do that? – Alex Jun 19 '14 at 19:35
  • Actually, nevermind, for my purposes that wasn't necessary. Thank you! – Alex Jun 19 '14 at 19:43