Is there something out there for QGIS that is similar to the Append Tool in ArcMap?
Reason I am looking:
I am currently working on a storm drainage project that involves GPSing Storm drain lids.
My issue is when I capture the points with the GPS unit, and then bring them into the office. The GPS unit produces a CSV file for me to import into QGIS. It gives the CSV file with generic header names ( field1, field2, field3..etc) This is fine, until I try to copy it into the working shapefile that has all the other storm drains.
The beautiful thing with ArcMap's append tool was that I could map each field from my CSV file to the destination shape file…ex… "field1" from CSV is equal to "Elevation" field in my shapefile. And thus update my shapefile with the newest points.
Best Answer
You need to keep the same column names so QGIs can find the related columns. To do that, if you already imported your data, you can use refactor tool from the QGIS geoalgorithms in the processing toolbox (Vector table tool).
Easier : if you can, just create a new first line for your incoming CSV, like @Brent Edwards suggested. Copy/paste the new names within the CSV opened with a Notepad ++ for example : instead of "field1,field2,field3" for the first line paste "x,y,z" for example.
Load it into QGIS. You will then have a replica of your existing shape with the new data.
Now, just try to save the new data by pointing to your existing data. QGIS will ask you if you want to overwrite or to append the existing file (save a backup version in case before doing that) :