I have a spread sheet with coordinates that once I bring in to Arcmap, the attributes disappear. The points are on the map, and when you Identify each point, the data shows up, but when the attribute table is open, the attribute titles are there, but no data below them. I have another table with data that comes in as it should. I was able to Display XY data and reproject, and the attributes showed up, but then there was only one point on the map (there is a total of 15). I've attached a screenshot of the excel table, but let me know what other info is needed.
[GIS] CSV won’t import correctly into Arcmap 10.3
arcgis-10.3arcgis-desktopcsvexcelxy
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I had the same problem (Arcmap would not import my csv file with headers, instead it would show Field1, Field2, Field3 etc). When I examined the file headers in Excel, I found...decimals numbers, spaces, percent signs etc. After replacing all of that with underscores or text, I had no problems. I dragged the .csv file into arcmap, opened the attribute table and all the headers were displayed perfectly.
Are you trying to join a .CSV file to your attribute table? Because a CSV file doesn't retain any excel formatting information. Either way, it sounds like ArcGIS is deciding that your 'string' field is better suited as an integer field.
If you use the 'Table to Table (Conversion)' tool you can tell ArcGIS to use specific field types for all of your fields. Refer to the image below and the tool's help on how to to this.
EDIT: I'm not too clear on what errors you're getting or whether you're doing an attribute join as opposed to a spatial join, but your original error (where your CSV's fields disappear after selecting the attribute field to join on) is caused by field types not matching; I.e. you can't join a string field to an integer field, because the string '100' is not the same as the integer 100. If you map your CSV's field to be of the same type as the field you're joining it should fix that error. To find out what data type the field is mapped as, right click the field name in the attribute table and select 'Properties'. The field's data type will be shown in the pop-up window.
Best Answer
Here is a very useful ESRI blog you (and anyone else) who intends to link data held in Excel with ArcMap should read. It explains the many pitfalls there are with Excel.
I personal avoid using Excel like the plague and get my data into personal geodatabase which is essentially a spatial enabled Access database. Much easier to read and write from and you have ObjectID fields.