Joining field of multiple tables into one shapefile using ArcMap

Question

I have one shapefile containing several zones (polygons), which are several agricultural parcels. Each parcel has its own FID. I also have five tables containing the crop type of each parcel for five years (2015 till 2020, one table for every year). These tables are the result of the zonal statistics as table function, where I used the majority parameter to get the most abundant crop type per parcel. In each table the FID of the parcels is also listed of course.

Now I want to join the majority field of each table to the corresponding parcel in the shapefile, so that I have the crop type per parcel for five years. I have used join field to add all the majority fields of the tables into the first table (table of 2015) so that could join this table with all the data to the shapefile in a next step. But surprisingly this works for only three tables. When I join the majority field of 2019, I get all zeros in that added field in the table of 2015. I tried also using batch join field and also model builder, but that does not work. I am not quite good in ModelBuilder.

How can I do this in ArcMap?

• Vince: If it works for some data and not for others, then you need to focus on differences between the inputs, not the procedure.
• sushi: Please add table examples, either screenshots or ASCII art with dashes. Also, check your field properties. Mismatch in types, lengths, etc. can cause problems. You can do some spot checking by using Relates.

Answer 1

It sounds like the join is failing to find matching values in whatever the fields are you are using for keys. There is probably some subtle difference in the values, or perhaps the fields are not defined the same way.