[Qgis-us-user] DBF table for SHP geo file

[karsten]

Hi Javier,
 
>>>  I am indeed creating the 3 files, in fact 5 files: Test.cpg, Test.dbf,
Test.prj, Test.shp and Test.shx 
ok that's good .

>>>  How are the SHP and DBF file related to each other? 
The geometries are stored inside the Test.shp file, the attribute table is
in Test.dbf (including a fid column which is invisible for most software and
which should not be touched) and the Test.shx  connects the two - geometry
with attributes using that fid field ...

>>>  It cannot be the OBJECTID value since I when the values is nulled it...

I am not sure what happened there in your case or how that came about.

>>>  What we are doing is merging smaller segment (city blocks) into larger
segments (0.5 to 1 mile long)  ...  n QGIS and at this time my expertise on
Qgis is pretty limited.as you can tell. L  >>>
I don't think that any of that has to be redone it should be able to work
out fine going the correct route.

>>> The interesting part is when I edit records,  ... 
>>> I will play using MS Access to do the editing since I can easily connect
to it and work with it from R:Base. 
I am not familiar with R:base and again to reiterate I am not sure what
happened in your case or how that came about.
Possibly the shape file collection (Test.cpg, Test.dbf, Test.prj, Test.shp
and Test.shx ) got corrupted somehow in the process.
Having not seen what happened might I advise you to save the origin (full)
shape file in Geopackage (*.gpkg) format instead (just to make sure all is
good and that is a much better format to use anyways with lots of advantages
above shape files) and go from there. The process would be something like
this
* take original full data shape file
* create selection of the records you nee as a subset
* save layers as -> choose to save only selected and choose Geopackage
format
* add and edit any fields you need in than geopackes using attribute table
tools or field calculator
* after being done with all edits - and only then - use the join tab of QGIS
to attach additional attributes coming from your processing procedure

>> I am new to this board and looks like this response goes to the Forum and
to you.   Again, thank you for the help, much appreciated. 
Well I am just one of the hundreds of recipients on the email list and
happen to have responded  ;)
Cheers
Karsten