Importing .csv table and assigning field data type

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Importing .csv table and assigning field da...	bethany long	May 23, 2002
Re: Importing .csv table and assigning fiel...	Neil Clemmons	May 23, 2002
Re: Importing .csv table and assigning fiel...	Mark Hoyland	May 23, 2002

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Subject	Importing .csv table and assigning field data type
Author	bethany long
Date	May 23, 2002
Message	As a novice user, maybe I am missing one big step here, but this is the problem. I have a comma delinated text file that I am opening up in ArcCatalog (or ArcMap for that matter) so that I can join it to an existing shape attribute table. The problem is that the field that I need to have relate is a series of 10 digit numbers with leading zeros, but must be recognized as a text field, rather than number field. I tried fooling the system by putting a dummy line in first with text, but it still looks at the field as a numeric format field and strips out the leading zeros and makes it so I cannot use that field to join the table attributes. When I open up the properties for the table, I cannot edit the data type field to change it to a text field (but it has already stripped off the important leading zeros also). Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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Subject	Re: Importing .csv table and assigning field data type
Author	Neil Clemmons
Date	May 23, 2002
Message	A csv file is just a text file. There is no way to assign a field type. If you want the items in the comma-delimited list to be read as text no matter if they are numeric or not, enclose the values in quotes. Example: ID,OwnerName,HouseNumber,Street "0001","John Doe",319,"Main Street"
	Neil Clemmons Senior GIS Developer Geographic Information Services, Inc. Birmingham, AL http://www.gis-services.com Check out our blog: http://blog.gis-services.com/

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Subject	Re: Importing .csv table and assigning field data type
Author	Mark Hoyland
Date	May 23, 2002
Message	Bethany There is a way which you can assign the data type to a field for use with ArcGis. In the folder where the .csv file resides will be a file called schema.ini Within this file you can set the values for each field. eg [YourFile.csv] Format=CSVDelimited Col1=Attribute1 Text Width 10 Col2=Attribute2 Double Col3=Attribute3 Text Width 32 Col1 refers to field 1 Attribute1 will display as the name of the field Text Width 10 will create a string field 10 characters wide. ArcMap and ArcCatalog read this file. for more info on schema.ini refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odbc/htm/odbcjetschema_ini_file.asp
	Mark Hoyland Sutherland Shire Council