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MapInfo Monday: Save Copy of Table As

  • 1.  MapInfo Monday: Save Copy of Table As

    Employee
    Posted 10-07-2024 02:20

    An often-used feature in MapInfo Pro is to make a copy of a table. There are several reasons why you may want to make a copy of an existing table:

    • You want to have a backup before making irreversible changes to your table
    • You want to change the coordinate system of the table
    • You want to save the table into the newer NativeX format or back into the older Native format
    • You want to either add or remove support for Z & M values on the spatial objects
    • You want to save the query result into a persisted table
    • You want to save the table in a MS Access database, a GeoPackage database, or another spatial database

    The Save Copy of Table As dialog has also been improved over the last few versions of MapInfo Pro. Have you kept up?

    Happy #MapInfoMonday!

    Accessing Save Copy of Table As

    You can access Save Copy of Table As from the Home and the Table tab.

    When you use this approach, you will be prompted to select the table to save a copy of via the Save Copy As dialog.
    You can also right-click on a table in the Table List and then select Save Copy As... from the context menu. Using this approach, you have already indicated the table you want to save a copy of, and therefore you will not be asked to select which table to save a copy of.

    The Save Copy of Table As dialog

    This takes us to the Save Copy of Table As dialog, where you set up the actual copy.
    First, you will have to select the folder where you want to save the copy of the table and specify the name of the new table.
    From the Save as type list, you can pick the desired format that you want to save the table into. The typical formats are MapInfo (*.tab) which is the older Native format and MapInfo Extended (*.tab) which is the newer NativeX format that can hold far more data than the older Native format.
    You can also select Microsoft Access Database (*.tab) and GeoPackage (*.tab) from the list. And if you have an open DBMS connection to a database, that would also show here allowing you to save a copy of the table directly into a spatial database.
    In all cases, you will also create a TAB file referencing the data wherever you decide to save it. You can use this TAB file to open the data into MapInfo Pro.
    If you need to get your table out into a different format, check out the options for exporting your table.
    In most cases, you would also want to open the new table into MapInfo Pro so that you can start using it. If that's the case, make sure the check the Open new table using view option and select the Open Option you prefer from the list.
    If you are saving a copy of a base table, you can also decide to save the copy in the background. Simply check the Save in Background option to do so. This will be a bit slower but it allows you to continue to use MapInfo Pro while the process runs. You can follow the process in the Tasks window.
    If you want to assign M and Z values on the nodes of your objects, make sure to check the Support MZ option when saving a copy of the table. The default value of this option depends on the input table. If you don't need M & Z Support, make sure to uncheck this option as it comes with a side effect too. Currently, we do not allow you to use several of the spatial processing tools on a table that supports M & Z values.
    Finally, you can use the two buttons in the lower right corner to change the Projection and Charset of the new table.
    When you hold your mouse cursor over the button, it will show you the currently selected projection. The default projection and Charset will be based on the input table.
    When you click the Projection... button, you can select the desired projection for the new table in the Choose Projection dialog.
    Finally, you can also select a different Charset for the new table via the Charset... button. The Charset defines how the text attributes are stored in the table. For many Latin-based languages, the ANSI charset will work fine. For other languages, you can consider using UTF-8 or even UTF-16 charset. 
    UTF-8 has been more popular lately as it is easier to transfer and does support most characters used.
    All you need to do now is push the Save button to create your new table using the various settings you have set.
    I hope you found this useful.


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    Peter Horsbøll Møller
    Principal Presales Consultant | Distinguished Engineer
    Precisely | Trust in Data
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