ArcGIS 10.1 Geocoding problems - Creature Feature Class/Error processing the table

Question

I am trying to geocode a list of addresses to location in a particular shapefile which has roads. I'm using ArcGIS 10.1, and trying to geocode using the address locator 10.0 north america geocode service (in table of contents, right click on the file -> geocode address).

The spreadsheet that I am trying to geocode is in .xls format. The geocoding MATCHED ~640 cases, before it gave this error:

Creature Feature Class/Error processing the table

There are no unusual characters in the field names - all of them either have a letter or a number, and nothing else.

Scanning over the spreadsheet, there do not appear to be any null values, and the addresses do not seem to contain any periods, or characters that would otherwise be unacceptable to an address locator (my thoughts on the matter obviously).

I've looked over other problems of a similar nature that have been posted in various forums, and most of the answers seem to be that the problem lies in the data, or in the format of the data.

So my questions are:

1. Is there a specific problem with the data that I should look for?
2. Why would the address location terminate after ~640 successful matches?
3. Is there a better way to place point representation on a map, rather than geocoding a list of addresses via address location to a shapefile?
4. Could the problem be with the shapefile, and some of the shapefiles attributes?

Answer 1

Sometimes when I geocode large tables (millions of records) I get the same error. I have been keeping an eye on my RAM during geocoding and it seems to be when I run out of memory, this error occurs.

In the locator properties there is a performance category, I tuned down the data cache size and get the error less, albeit geocode a bit slower.

I have also noticed the error a lot less when I run the 'Geocode Addresses' Tool, versus just right click geocoding.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

I created my own address locator, using a dual ranges style, as well as matching up the proper variables from the spreadsheet and the input layer, and now, not only do the addresses become matched almost instantly (~10 seconds maybe as opposed to 5-10 minutes it took through the right click-> geocode addresses method) but it actually worked!