I have a fifty or so shapefiles. All of them have similar attribute tables with identical field titles. I also have a standalone table with data that I want to add to every single attribute table based on a shared field (DATE).
This is easy individually using the "Join Field" tool, but on my computer it takes a long time (almost seven minutes per file), and I have to stay near the computer to start the next file.
Is it possible to set it up to run on every single shapefile in the batch? I want to let it run while I'm away from the computer.
Best Answer
Folks usually automate tasks such as yours with Python and the ArcGIS
arcpy
site package. Here is a script to get you started. This essentially loops over a folder of shapefiles and joins a common table to each. I would recommend creating a copy of your original shapefiles when running this script as theJoinField_management
tool alters the original data.