Combining multiple shapefiles into one shapefile using ArcMap?

Question

I have two .shp containing stream segments from two different NHD HUC files (see photo)HUC12 and HUC13 shapefiles. I would like to make these into one shapefile and combine the attribute tables. I have tried to use the merge tool in ArcMap but the attribute tables do not match like they were before being merged. Am I missing a step?

I am using ArcMap 10.5 and I would like the attributes of one shapefile within the same table as the attributes of the other shapefile in one table as one shapefile.

• Vince: Please edit your original question before adding a new one.
• ahmadhanb: You need to make sure that both shapefiles have identical field names so that they can merge using merge tool. If you have different field names the fields will not be merged but they will be appended based on the order of input shapefiles in the merge tool.

Answer 1

Try filling out the field mapping option of the merge. I think this may be the step you are missing. Field mapping will tell ArcMap how it should organize fields from both inputs.

See the ESRI reference document here.

Answer 2

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Use the Update (Analysis) tool in ArcMap or try using Merge Vector Layers in QGIS

• wittenberg: for whatever reason, I couldn't get merge to work in ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro, but the QGIS equivalent worked great