CartoDB merge tables (column join) returns import error

Question

I have been trying to merge two tables using the column join in Carto DB.

The first table is a table of US counties that contains the polygon geometry and the FIPS id code. The second table contains the FIPS id as well as information about population density. The common column "FIPS" is string in both tables. There are just over 3,000 rows in each table.

When I try to merge them i CartoDB it appears to begin executing successfully, then it takes me to a page that says "What a pity, the page you are looking for doesn’t exist." I am able to click back to my dashboard, and a status bar still shows that "creating table" is executing.

After some time a final error appears as: "Oops! An error occured while importing your file."

Has anyone experienced this? Any ideas on what is causing the error and how to get around it?

Answer 1

My guess is that you are going over quota. In your table view, try this in the SQL panel,

SELECT count(*) FROM (
        SELECT a.cartodb_id, b.cartodb_id 
        FROM first_table a, second_table b
        WHERE a.fips = b.fips
)

You should get a count back of the total rows in your join. That is a good way to start the diagnoses. Perhaps it is '0', in which case you would create an empty table (result error), or perhaps it is very very big and you would go over quota (result error).

• be sure to change first_table and second_table to your actual table names, also, if 'fips' isn't the name of your column, change it to the right column name in both cases.