JOIN & AutoField Tool - Error Message

[wbroughton]

I'm having an issue where I'm trying to use the Join Tool to combine two datasets, based on the Store and ID fields. When I ran the workflow initially, I received an error message saying that only "String fields can be joined to other string fields". Afterwards, I added the AutoField tool, it order to correct the data types for each field.

After running the workflow again, I received the error message "Double fields can only be joined to other double fields". I'm not sure where I went wrong, but does anyone have any suggestions on how I could resolve? Please see attachments below for reference.

[AndrewDMerrill · Accepted solution]

I would not actually recommend using auto field here. One of the benefits of auto field is that it will try to minimize memory use by choosing the smallest type that the data requires. If you look at the Join image you included, you'll notice that [Store] from L-input is of Type 'Double' but [id] from the R-input is of Type 'Byte'.

As an alternative use the Select Tool and set both fields to whatever you'd like them to be. It's rare for an ID field to be of type double, so I recommend removing the auto field entirely and placing a Select Tool after "Sales_Store_Output" and before the L-input of your join. In the Select Tool you can set the Data Type for [Store] to 'String' (or any of the alternative string types).

[wbroughton]

I definitely appreciate the feedback and explanation when it comes to the data types and Join tool!  I'll do more research on this topic and practice more on workflows. Thank you!