Exporting a layer with a comma causes ArcMap to crash

Description

Exporting a layer with a comma in a field name causes ArcMap to crash.

Cause

This can commonly occur when using Microsoft Excel worksheets within ArcMap. ArcMap allows worksheets with a field name that contains a comma to be added as data to the map; however, performing an operation like 'exporting the table or layer' requires that ArcMap use the true schema of the data.

In the export process, ArcMap reads through all the field names of the dataset and separates them with a comma. As a result, any field that contains a comma inadvertently causes ArcMap to fail, because the export functionality tries to interpret a field that does not exist.

Common workflows that could encounter this problem:

▪ Exporting an X,Y event layer
▪ Exporting a layer with a join to an Excel worksheet

Workaround