I have a polygon shapefile with 93 objects in it. They have a column with values for the buffer distance. 90 of these objects have 5 as a value, while the remaining 3 have 0.
When I use the buffer tool, the shapefile created leave out the 3 records containing the 0-values, so only a shapefile with 90 objects are in it.
Why is this? I have managed to do this before with 0-values, is there something I have forgotten?
You do not say what version of ArcGIS for Desktop you are using, or whether any warning/error message was returned, but the help on warning/error 000026 : Buffer distance is zero for versions 10.2, 10.2.1 and 10.2.2 says:
Description
Running Buffer with a distance of zero is not valid, as the expected output would be an exact duplicate of the input.
Solution
... If you are using a field to set the buffer distance, ensure that all records for that field have a value greater or less than 0.
I cannot recall whether this particular software behaviour has changed over time but I am sure that Buffer has had some changes made during the 10.x versions.
