000439 : The schema of the overlay does not match that of the input

Description

The Update tool requires that the Input and Update datasets have matching schemas. The schema properties that are relevant and must match in this case are as follows:

• Fields must be the same (in both name and properties).
• Geometry must be of the same type (both POINT, or both LINE, and so forth)
• Both datasets must have Ms or neither must have m-values.
• Both datasets must have Zs or neither must have z-values.

Solution

Copy your inputs and modify the copied versions to have matching schemas and run Update on the copied versions of your inputs. Here is a procedure for easily creating feature classes with matching schemas. In this example there are two feature classes, named fc1 and fc2.

1. Which feature class has the "desired" schema. Pick one (assume fc1).
2. Run the Create Feature Class tool with these parameters set:
   • The output location is the same location as fc1, if possible. If it is not, put it into a file geodatabase if fc1 is in a geodatabase or to a folder if fc1 is a shapefile.
   • The name should be something like fc2_matching_schemaStep.
   • For the Template Feature Class parameter, use fc1.
   • For Coordinate system, import the spatial reference from fc1.
3. Run the append tool with fc2 as the input and fc2_matching_schema as the target.

   Evaluate fc2_matching_schema to make sure all the data (feature geometry and feature attributes) is there. If yes, run Update with fc1 and fc2_matching_schema.