What is the benefit of attaching Data in Excel files to a map?

[DanAllenhtn]

What is the point or goal of attaching data to a map in ArcGIS Pro? I have attached 240,000 addresses. Here they are; you can see them in the picture. So what? What good is supposed to be provided?

If I need to have longitude and latitude values created for these 240,000 addresses, has attaching the data like this made any kind of progress?"

One of the things I need done is to have latitude/longitude data added to each of the 240,000 addresses.  Does attaching the 240,000 address to the map with an excel file help with that goal? 

[Ed_]

For the purposes of showing the data on the map, you can geocode the data based on the Address_1, CITY and potentially State and Zipcode columns and see the addresses as points on the map by converting the table into a point feature class. Although, 240,000 addresses will cost you some credits if you use ESRI's geocoder. 

This can be achieved using Geocode Addresses (Geocoding)

Tutorial: Geocode a table of addresses

A free alternative could either be to use your own locator/geocoder or use programming languages like R or Python.

How To Geocode In R For FREE

The above mentioned methods will add latitude/longitude data to each of the 240,000 addresses. 

[DanAllenhtn]

I ihave a lot of catching up to do, but I am going to give the R code solution a try.   I have never run R.

[DanAllenhtn]

If we really are going to geocode 3 million addresses, would you have different suggestions on dealinght that big number?

[Ed_]

Certainly don't geocode them all at once, create subsets based on what your computer can handle and geocode one subset at a time. Maybe first, practice with a sample of 50 addresses. 

[DanAllenhtn]

it will take only a minute to put 50 addresses into an excel table and add that table to the map.  Then, how I do get the lat/long put on them.  When Itry looking that up, there are hundreds of suggestions.  Can you suggest as simple choice so I start getting accustom to the process?

...still typing

The easiest way to get started is to use ersi's resources, I think..  To get good with this, I can imagine I would be a lot better off going after that R approach you suggested.  The hassle there is I just know setting up any kind of system for anything in WINDOWS sucks, and all this is in windows.  If were using Linux, it would differnt and better world.  
That is all the crying on this I can afford today. I am thinking if I can start geocoding our data with R that I can get running over the weekend, it would one of those occasions where I was not a complete failure in my job.
Am I making sense?

[Ed_]

Hi Dan, so the geocode address tool in ArcGIS Pro automatically adds the lat and long columns also known as X and Y columns to the geocoded feature class. You can see this by opening its attribute table.

[DanAllenhtn]

Ed, you are being very generous and gracious in helping me. I knew I would need support like this to get this going, but I did not expect the basic process to be as confusing as it is. I figured putting lat/long on an addresses would be like

=latlong($address)

and away we go.

I promise you,

I will learn all I can on my  own as fast as possible and get to a point of reasonable ability to support my employer's needs and never take your time for granted.

AND

I also promise to pass on what I am learning to my teammates

and

I will look for a new beginner to help along, as a way of paying back for what you are doing for me.

And one more thing.

In addition to just trying to do my job and doing the right thing, I dedicate this effort to the rescue of our Constitutional form of government, which has been attacked and undercut by deliberate efforts to make everyone as ignorant about everything as I am about geocoding. This is a way for me to contribute to the reconstruction of our shattered nation.

There is nothing I appreciate more than the chance to do that.

[MichaelVolz]

The Census Bureau provides a free geocoder that generates a text file with lat long values.  From there reformat the output to be used as input to XY Event Layer to create a point feature class.

[clt_cabq]

The reality is there is a LOT of business data that is hoarded in spreadsheets that never makes its way into any kind of enterprise database. In use cases I've encountered, data held in a spreadsheet can be used to enhance or add value to other geographic data. A common work flow would be to load your excel file then 'join' it to an existing spatial layer provided there is a common matching data field and then use the values in the excel columns to drive analysis, visualization or whatever. As @Ed_ mentions, an excel spreadsheet can be used as the source of a geocoding operation so you can create the spatial representation of those data. There are lots of reasons for this capability, it just depends on your needs and goals.