Join Field (Data Management) (ArcInfo only)

Usage tips

• All fields in the Input Dataset will be kept during the join. Optionally, only selected fields from the Join Table will be added to the output. These can be checked under the Join Fields parameter.

• If no fields are selected for the optional Join Fields parameter, the default is to add all fields from the Join Table to the output.

• The input can be a feature class, table, or shapefile.

• Records from the Join Table can be matched to more than one record in the Input Dataset.

• Joins can be sorted based on fields of types text, date, or number.

• Joins based on text fields are case sensitive.

• Fields of different number formats can be joined as long as the values are equal. For example, a field of type float can be joined to a short integer field.

• The input field and join field can have different names.

• If a join field has the same name as a field from the input table, the joined field will be appended by _1 (or _2 or _3, etc.) to make it unique.

• If values in the Output Join Field are not unique, only the first occurrence of each value will be used.

  • To account for join table values other than the first occurrence, first input the join table into the Summary Statistics tool and summarize the field(s) however desired (e.g., sum, mean, min). Click here to view an illustration.
  • To merge two or more fields in the join table before the join, first export the table or feature class using the Table To Table tool and merge using the tool's field map. Click here to view an illustration.

Command line syntax
An overview of the Command Line window
joinfield_management <in_data> <in_field> <join_table> <join_field> {fields}

Command line example

JoinField test1_input id test1_join id field31;field4

Scripting syntax
About getting started with writing geoprocessing scripts
joinfield_management (in_data, in_field, join_table, join_field, fields)

Script example

# Create the geoprocessor

import arcgisscripting

gp = arcgisscripting.create(93)



# Set the current workspace 

gp.Workspace = "c:/test_data"


# Join two feature classes by the zonecode field and only carry over the land use and land cover fields

gp.joinfield ("zion_park", "zonecode", "zion_zoning", "zonecode", "land_use; land_cover")