shrug-l: RE: Renaming a field name

[John Marquez]

Ken,
Shapefile:
I import my .dbf into Microsoft Access 2002, change to Design View,
edit the filename AND order of the field, save the table edits, switch
back to the Main Access view, right click on your table and  export the
.dbf back out to the same filename. 
Geodatabase:
I have to take ESRI's advice on that. You lose your field order
though.
John M

John Marquez
GIS Specialist II
Tallahassee/Leon County MIS/GIS
Leon County Courthouse
301 S. Monroe Street  P3 Level
Tallahassee, Fl. 32301
Ph.850-488-2818
Fax.850-922-0099
marquezj at leoncountyfl.gov 




>>> "Pence, Patrick" <PenceP at talgov.com> 01/06/06 9:38 AM >>>
Ken-

Rather than fiddling with the DBF (or if you are using a
Geodatabase)...

>From the ESRI Support User Forums:

"The simplest thing to do is to right click on the layer, open the
attribute table, add another field with that is the same type, length,
and so forth, but name the field the name you want it. Then click on the
field so that it is highlighted and right click and select "calculate
values". In the top left pane you will see the rest of the fields in
your shapefile. Double click on the old field and hit ok. Note: above
the text box you should see: NewFieldName = and in the text box you
should see OldFieldName. Also you could just bring up the field
calculator without highlighting your new field and simply double click
on the new field name and then the = sign and then double click on the
old field name. "

Patrick

-----Original Message-----
From: shrug-l-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us 
[mailto:shrug-l-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us]On Behalf Of Ken Stocks
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 8:49 AM
To: SHRUG
Subject: shrug-l: Renaming a field name


Does anyone have any advice on how to rename field
names in the attribute table?  I have a shapefile that
consists of joined attribute tables and need to clean
up the field names.  Once in editor mode, I can edit
data within the fields but not the field name.  Can
someone give me a tip on how to rename the field
names?  I have tried to edit field names in the dbf in
excel but it seems to destroy the shapefile.  Its
probably something really simple to fix but I can't
put my finger on it...  

Thanks,

Ken
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