Introduction
As you may have noticed by now, GIS data comes in many formats. There are geodatabases, shapefiles, CAD files, DBF files, rasters, spreadsheets, and more. ArcGIS Pro allows you to use all of these. However, there are limits to what ArcGIS Pro allows you to do with some of these formats. Some of these are read only, such as CAD files or spreadsheets. Others you can read and edit, such as shapefiles and geodatabases. Also, if you have data spread across multiple locations, formats, and files, it can make it difficult to use.
If you are going to be editing and analyzing data, it is recommended that you consolidate all the required data into a single format. For ArcGIS Pro, the primary storage format is the geodatabase. Shapefiles are generally considered a secondary option. In order to consolidate your data sources, you may need to convert and combine data from one or more sources into a single source. ArcGIS Pro provides several methods and tools to accomplish this. Which one works...
