JOINing tables with incompatible column types should display a warning/error

[MichaelTodd]

If a user tries to join two tables and the joining columns are incompatible the join will fail, even if there would be a valid match if the columns were the same type. Allowing the join even though it will result in 0 matches can be confusing to a user, especially one who is unfamiliar with how things work at the database level.

Instead, a warning or error should appear in the Join window letting the user know that they are about to waste their time, both during the join as well as the hours of frustration afterward trying to figure out why it's not working when it looks like it should.

[DanPatterson]

Join Field (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Text to Text

Date to Date

But for numbers there is bending of some "rules"

Fields of different number formats can be joined as long as the values are equal. For example, a field of type float can be joined to a short integer field.

Did you get this warning?

or did you get a warning when you ran validate join

003237: Join has no matches.—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Description
The join has no matches. This may occur if the data does not match...

Which refers to the text to numbers or numbers to text issue

[MichaelTodd]

This is actually on behalf of a user who spent several days trying to troubleshoot this same issue. He received the warning you displayed but did not know enough to recognize what specifically it meant, I.e. that there was underlying column incompatibility. To the user, 12345 was equal to “12345”.

Even something as simple as a message above or below the Join has no matches warning like “cannot join integer and string columns” might have saved the user numerous hours extracting data, deleting columns, and whatever else they did to fix a problem for which they had no useful guiding hints.

[Kalgul]

I am the user that MichaelTodd is referring to.  I spent 16 man-hours and multiple days stuck on this one issue, trying to make a single Join.  I was given Error 003237 100% of the time upon attempting to validate.  I was attempting to join a 12-character Text field with a Double field, and it simply said that the join had no matches.  There was no indication of incompatible field types in any tooltips that the type of field was a problem.  It just didn't work and didn't tell me what to do.

[AndreasHall · Accepted solution]

Suggestions about new functionality should be posted in ArcGIS Pro Ideas, then the product team will get aware of them. They do not necessarily look through the questions posted here.

[MichaelTodd]

Of course I posted in the wrong area. Thanks for your useful guiding hint.

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-ideas/joining-tables-with-incompatible-column-types/idi-p/1...