Importing values into n:m relationship class of geodatabase?

Question

I have an m:n relationship class in an ArcGIS 10.0 Geodatabase.

The values for the association table already exist in another table.

I would now like to import this table into the ArcGIS Relationship class instead of having to edit the table manually.

I don´t however see an import function.

Is there a way to import the values without manually editing the table?

Answer 1

I ran into the same issue, but the Table to Relationship Class tool kept crashing ArcGIS. Here is what I did:

1. Create a new M-N relationship class (it will create a new table), with no additional attributes (adding attributes crashed for me; maybe I shouldn't add the two FKs at that stage)
2. Note: the new table will not show up as a table in ArcCatalog, only as a relationship class
3. Add the relationship class to ArcMap; then I was able to open it as a table and add my other columns.
4. In my underlying database tools (PostgreSQL in my case), use the INSERT INTO ... SELECT ... pattern in SQL to copy the rows from the existing linking table.

If you have a file geodatabase, I'm not sure if there is a way to do this workaround.

Answer 2

Rather than importing them into an existing relationship class you should be able to use the Table To Relationship Class tool to convert them into a new one:

If you have many-to-many relationships that are modeled using a Join table, you can use the Table To Relationship Class geoprocessing tool to convert the table that links values between two other tables into an attributed relationship class.

Its Online Help describes this in more detail.