Task A1-b: Transferring basin/stream name attributes from
xxxx_ref_basins or xxxx_ref_sl to basins_all in ArcGIS 9.2

The following steps will allow you to update the stream names in your new basins_all shapefile with those you have added or modified in your xxxx_ref_basins or xxxx_ref_sl shapefile.

This procedure will result in a direct transfer of all customized stream names to the basins_all shapefile.

For these instructions, we will use the xxxx_ref_basins shapefile (but you could also use the xxxx_ref_sl shapefile if it contains your customized names).

1. Add the two layers (xxxx_ref_basins and basins_all) to the Data Frame.

2. Right-click the basins_all layer and select Open Attribute Table. In the Table window, click Options and select Add Field. Enter Cust_name for the name, Text for the type, and Length of at least 20. Click OK and close the table.

3. Right-click the basins_all layer again, select Joins and Relates, and then select Join.

4. In the Join Data box that appears, make the following selections:

   What do you want to join to this layer?

   Join attributes from a table

   1. Choose the field in this layer that the join will be based on:

   PFAF_ID

   2. Choose the table to join to this layer, or load the table from disk:

   xxxx_ref_basins

   3. Choose the field in the table to base the join on:

   PFAF_ID

   Click OK. The attributes from the second layer (xxxx_ref_basins) should be appended to the attribute table of the first layer.

5. Click the Editor button and select Start Editing. In the box that appears, select the basins_all layer to edit and click the Start Editing button. This puts the basins_all layer (including its attribute table) in edit mode.

   We will do two queries to select the basins for which names will be transferred:

6. In the basins_all table, click the Options button and choose Select by Attributes.

7. In the Select by Attributes window that appears, make sure the “Method” at the top is “Create a new selection”. Double-click the attribute names in the Fields list and the operand buttons to create the following query:

   “basins_all.STREAMNAME” <> “xxxx_ref_basins.STREAMNAME”

   Click Apply. This will select all of the basins that have different names in the old and new basins.

8. In the same Select by Attributes window, change the “Method” to “Select from current selection”.  Create the following query:

   “xxxx_ref_basins.STREAMNAME” <> ‘’ (NOTE: These are two single-quotes after the <>.)

   Click Apply. This will select only the basins that have a name in xxxx_ref_basins to avoid copying over blank values.

9. Right-click the basins_all.STREAMNAME field in the table and select Field Calculator. In the Field Calculator box that appears, double-click "xxxx_ref_basins.STREAMNAME" so it appears in the calculation box. Click OK. The names from xxxx_ref_basins.STREAMNAME should be copied to the basins_all.STREAMNAME field for the selected basins only.

10. Right-click the basins_all.CUST_NAME field in the table and select Field Calculator. In the box that appears type “yes” in the calculation box. Click OK. This “yes” flag in the Cust_name field will indicate that the names of these basins have been transferred from the xxxx_ref_basins shapefile.

11. After verifying that the above edits are what you want, Click the Editor button and select Stop Editing. Click Yes to save the edits.

12. Right-click the basins_all layer and select Joins and Relates. Select Remove Join(s), then select xxxx_ref_basins.

You are now ready to prepare the shapefiles for localization.

<--Back