I have an attribute table schema (about 30 fields) stored in an Excel document, which I exported as a dbf. I can easily make a geodatabase table from this, using the Excel sheet as a template. How can I create a feature class from this schema (either from the Excel sheet or the dbf or the geodatabase table)? The Excel sheet is blank except for the field names.
[GIS] How to create Feature Class based on DBF schema
arcgis-10.0attribute-tableexcelschema-architecture
Related Solutions
I'd consider leveraging IFieldChecker. There's some sample code under the Creating output feature class fields and geometry section on this page.
Also, if you need to keep track of which destination fields were derived from which origin fields, you might consider using IModelInfo:
... the model name which is a tool for developers of custom objects to use to guarantee the names of objects independent of the true name or alias name.
If you just need to add a field, the simplest is probably calling IClone.Clone() on the origin featureclass's IFeatureClass.Fields member, then using IFieldsEdit.AddField on the resulting clone to add the single field, then using that to create the new featureclass.
If you want both the fields and their values, you can use Join Field to accomplish this:
Joins the contents of a table to another table based on a common attribute field. The input table is updated to contain the fields from the join table. You can select which fields from the join table will be added to the input table.
(source: arcgis.com)
If you just want the field definitions and no values to be added to an existing feature class, as far as I can tell no out-of-the-box tools will handle this.
However you might be interested in X-Ray for ArcCatalog. It might be able to do what you're looking for ("Merge two different designs in to a new consolidated geodatabase design"), but haven't used it enough myself to say for sure.
Best Answer
Try adding two extra fields for X and Y (perhaps Longitude and Latitude), then I think you should be able to use Display XY Data from the layer context menu, followed by Data|Export Data to create the feature class.