An overview of adding datasets to the geodatabase

An overview of adding datasets to the geodatabase
Release 9.3

Note: This topic was updated for 9.3.1.

There are several ways to add datasets to a geodatabase using ArcMap and ArcCatalog:

Creating new datasets—You can use ArcCatalog to create new datasets.

Copy and Paste—You can copy a dataset and paste it into another location.

Importing datasets—You can import datasets into a geodatabase.

Exporting datasets—You can export a dataset directly to a geodatabase or to an XML workspace or XML recordset.

Loading data—You can load data into an existing table or feature class using the ArcCatalog Simple Data Loader or ArcMap Object Loader or via XML recordset and XML workspace documents.

ArcCatalog, ArcToolbox, and ArcMap contain tools that import data from a wide variety of formats into the geodatabase. Here are some of the commonly imported data types and where you can find more information.

Importing data into the geodatabase

External data types	Import tasks
ArcInfo Workstation	Importing coverage feature classes Importing INFO tables Loading data into existing geodatabase feature classes and tables Importing coverage annotation
ESRI shapefiles	Importing shapefiles Importing dBASE tables Loading shapefile data into existing geodatabase feature classes and tables
Computer-aided drafting (CAD) files	Importing CAD entities into feature classes Importing tiled CAD datasets Loading CAD data into existing geodatabase feature classes Importing CAD text into geodatabase annotations
Raster files	Importing raster files Mosaicking raster datasets Creating raster catalogs in the geodatabase

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