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I have an excel file in which I have XY coordinates, example on the attached immage that is the form XCoord | YCoord 15822.426100 | -2747650.026000

I need them in the form similar to this XCoord | YCoord -24.7236869 | 31.1995142

Please help, Im using ArcGIS 10.2enter image description here

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    To convert them you will also need to know the coordinate system that they are from. Do you know this? If you don't, where are these coordinates for? Someone might know common coordinate systems for your area. Does ArcGIS already have the coordinate system for the Feature Class?
    – cndnflyr
    Mar 30, 2015 at 12:47
  • WGS 1984, I think utm universal transverse mercator
    – Plengo
    Mar 30, 2015 at 13:03
  • You can't convert UTM without knowing your zone. That said ... they do not look like UTM coords.
    – ymirsson
    Mar 30, 2015 at 13:41

4 Answers 4

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These coordinates may be sort-of Lo coordinates like Lo31. The South African Lo zones use transverse Mercator, but the false easting and northing parameters are zeroes.

Normally Lo uses positive south and west axes, but because the Y's are negative, try assigning the Cape or Hartebeesthoek95 Lo31 zone in Projected Coordinate Systems, National Grids, South Africa when you use Add XY Data in ArcMap.

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I assume ArcGIS is aware of the projection of your data. Check it in the properties of the layer in the Table of Contents. On the Source Tab it will tell you the information about the projection: enter image description here If that's the case, than this will work. In the search window, search for "add xy". Choose the "Add XY Coordinates (Data Management)" Tool There is only one input, so choose your Feature Class (I'm also assuming the feature class is Points). Then click on Environments... and under Output Coordinates, choose: enter image description here If you know what Geographic Transformation should be used for your area, you can enter that as well. Otherwise Arc will make it's best guess (sometimes good, sometimes not).

If you are not working with a Feature Class and this is just a table. Then you will need to make an XY Event Layer from that table. Look it up in the ArcGIS Help and it should give you a good walk through on how to do that. Once the XY Event Layer is made then you'll be able to use the same steps I outlined above.

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It looks from this source like the specific UTM Zone might be Zone 36 S ? http://www.dmap.co.uk/utmworld.htm

If I were you, I would investigate the link I provided to see if you agree with my assumption of the correct UTM Zone.

Then use the "Project Define" tool. Do This "ONLY" if it is not defined already. It is under "Data Management Tools" -> "Projections and Transformations" - "Project Define". enter image description here

Next open the "Project" tool from the ArcToolbox. It is under "Data Management Tools" -> "Projections and Transformations" - "Feature" - "Project". Having set the projection for the input will mean you don't need to do anything else for the input. For the output, pick "Geographic Coordinate Systems" when selecting the output coordinate system and choose WGS 1984. You will get Geographic Coordinates using the same datum as your input and I think this will give you what you are asking for in the question. enter image description here

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I found a solution, based on the other answers bits and pieces. So it was a projection problem, I had other shape files which their projections were ok. here are the steps I took.

  • Add Layer of my xlsx file
  • right click on it to display XY Data and set the X and Y coordinates field, at this point I do not define the projection, after applying these, a new table will be created under layers
  • right click on the new table -> data -> Export Data -> to a shapefile(give it a proper name), when asked to add the created file as a layer I said yes.
  • I removed all the other layers and be left out with my new shapefile i have just added
  • Go to tool box -> Data Management -> Projections ->Define Projection. select the feature class, browse projection them import -> browse to a shape file that already has projection set then apply these changes.

final step (changing Meter coordinates to decimal degrees coordinates) - right click on the shapefile under layers -> Open attributes table - Add new fields, in this case two, set data type to double, field names should be for X and Y coordinates. right click on each field-> Calculate Geometry -> select which coordinate column you want to transform, change at the last drop down to decimal degrees then Ok, repeat this step for the other field for its corresponding coordinate

therefore you should have two new fields X & Y with decimal degree format

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