Creating a New Table - MapInfo_Pro - 2023

You can bring in data tables from several outside sources: dBASE, Excel, Access, Lotus 1-2-3, shapefiles, Grid, comma delimited, and delimited ASCII. You can also create your own database directly in MapInfo Pro. These databases can be opened and displayed as maps (providing they contain graphic objects) or in a Browser window.

To create a table in MapInfo Pro:

1. On the TABLE tab, click New Table. The New Table dialog box displays.
2. Choose one or more from the following:
   • Open New Browser - Click this check box to display the new buffer in a new Browser window only.
   • Open New Mapper - Click this check box to display the new buffer in a new Map window.
   • Add to Current Mapper - Click this check box to display the new buffer in the current Map window.
3. Do one of the following and click OK:
   • To create a new table and new table structure, click Create New.
   • To create a new table based on the structure of an existing table, click Using Table and select from the list of open tables.
4. Choose Create. The New Table Structure dialog box displays.
   
   

   

   
   

   If you selected Create New, this dialog is empty. You can remove a field by highlighting it and clicking the Remove Field button.

5. Choose Add Field to begin adding new fields to the database's structure. Give the field a name, type, width, and specify whether the field will be indexed.
6. Continue to add fields until you have the structure you want.
7. Use the Up and Down buttons to reorder the fields. Keep in mind that the order of fields in this dialog box (top to bottom) will actually display as columns (left to right) in the Browser window.
8. Choose Create. The Create New Table dialog box displays.
9. Specify a location for the new table in the Save in box.
10. Enter a name for the table in the File Name box.
11. Specify the file type in the Save as type drop-down list in one of these formats:
    • MapInfo (*.tab)
    • dBASE DBF (*.tab)
    • Microsoft Access (*.tab)
    • Mapinfo Version 2 (*.tab)
    • SQLite Database (*.tab)
12. Click Save. One of these things occur:
    • If you chose the MapInfo Pro format, MapInfo Pro creates your table.
    • If you chose dBASE DBF, proceed to step 13.
    • If you chose dBASE DBF, the dBASE DBF Information dialog box displays, asking you to specify a file character set. Choose the one appropriate for your language and click OK.
13. Click Save in the Create New Table dialog box. MapInfo Pro creates the new table.
    Note: Do not use "Districts" as a name for your base tables. MapInfo Pro uses "Districts" internally as a system table when beginning a redistricting session.

Naming a File

MapInfo Pro supports long file names. This allows you to use up to 260 characters when naming your file. In addition, any one name within your directory path can be up to 255 characters. You can insert spaces in the filename and long filenames can have more than one "." in them. When using more than one ".", you must remember to type in the file extension in order to save the file correctly. For example you can name a table as follows: \\state\city.dbf

Opening Multiple Tables

To work with your data, you must first open the file or table that contains the information with which you want to work.

To open the table:

1. On the HOME tab, in the File group, from the Open list, click Table to display the Open dialog box.
2. Choose the drive and directory for the table you want to open.
3. Choose the appropriate table (.tab file). When opening multiple tables, use Shift-click to select adjacent tables and Ctrl-click to select non-adjacent tables.
4. Click Open.

Opening DBF and Shape Files Created with UTF-8 Encoding

MapInfo Pro includes read-only support for DBF files with data stored in UTF-8 encoding. Many Data vendors distribute data in Shapefile format which include DBF files. The attribute data may be in a UTF-8 character set.

To open a DBF or Shape file with UTF-8 encoding:

1. From the HOME tab, click Open. The Open dialog displays.
2. From the Files of type list, select dBASE DBF (*.dbf) or Shape as appropriate
3. From the Look in list, select the location of the file to open.
4. Click Open. An information dialog displays.
5. From the File Character Set list, select UTF-8.
6. Click OK.

The file opens in a browser or map window, and is marked as read-only.

Display Results for Tables with Data stored in UTF-8 Encoding

UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode system. However, MapInfo Pro will only represent characters in your character set or "Codepage" as it is called in Microsoft Windows. A codepage represents all the characters of one or more languages. MapInfo Pro will be able to completely read your UTF-8 data as long as all the characters have a representation in that character set. If the data you are reading has a character that is not in your character set, MapInfo Pro displays it as the underscore ( _ ) character. The following table has some samples of what you might encounter.

Data stored in UTF-8 that is entirely in one character set displays correctly on systems set for that character set. UTF-8 data outside the character set displays as underscores. For example, if a UTF-8 dataset has a mixture of Latin1 and Latin2 characters, then the table opens and displays different parts correctly depending on your system.

• The UTF-8 character set is supported only for DBF format (including shapefiles).
• Tables that use UTF-8 encoding have a version of 1000.
• Tables that use UTF-8 character set are read-only.
• To edit a table opened from UTF-8, save it as a MapInfo Native table (.TAB). On the On the HOME tab, in the File group, click Save Copy as. You can then edit the file like any other table.

Creating a New Table by Combining Objects Using Column

If you want to make a new map of the U.S. based on areas such as Midwest, Pacific Coast, Northeast, etc., you could combine all of the state data and create new objects where some common data value is the key to which the new map object states will belong.

To do this, you could draw a rectangle somewhere on the States map. Select some states around the rectangle and specify them as the target. Select the rectangle and do a split operation. The new objects will be created and each split object will have its same state initials. Then, use Combine Objects Using Column and specify the state initials fields as the grouping value. The states will be re-created.

The Combine Objects Using Column feature gives you the option of creating a new table for the newly combined objects:

1. On the SPATIAL tab, in the Edit group, click Combine, and Combine Using Column to open the Combine Objects using Column dialog box.
2. Choose the objects from the table you want to combine.
3. Choose the column you want the objects to be grouped by.
4. Choose New In the Store results in table drop-down list.
5. Click the Next button to open the New Table dialog box.
6. Click the Create button to open the New/Modify Table Structure dialog box.
7. Click the Create button to open the Create New Table dialog box.
8. Click Save and a new table is created.

See Also:

Opening Multiple Tables

Opening Multiple Workspaces

Opening Multiple Browsers