Is exporting to feature class the simplest way to make joins permanent?

Question

I am a new user doing simple tasks with ArcMap 10.1

I have a shapefile and an excel file, and I want the join to be a permanent part of the shapefile. The way I've been going about this is to export the shapefile into a feature class within a database. Is this the most efficient way to go about saving the joined attributes?

Answer 1

If you've already done the join, yes. If not, then you should start with the Join Field tool. This allows you to directly write attributes from one file to another based on a join (a one-step process rather than join/export two-step).