shrug-l: RE: Renaming a field name

Tan, Yurong Yurong.Tan at va.gov
Fri Jan 6 11:56:35 EST 2006


Hello Greetings!

I would like to share my two cents of non-direct experience on this
subject of changing/adding/deleting column names of ESRI registered data
sets including tables outside the ArcGIS realm (Toolbox tools,
interactive menus, ...).  It appears (though not hard evidence from
ESRI) that ArcGIS does not like or is often confused with data objects
(layers and tables) whose structures/schemas have been modified using
native functionalities (e.g. Excel, Access, SQL command line, ...)

I learned dearly when I was trying to rename a column (change the name
and width) of a SDE layer in SQL server.  I did a "alter table
table_name add new_column ...", then update table ... set new_column =
trim(old_column), then validated the results, and finally "alter table
table_name drop column old_column" and all were done using the SQL
commandline (which is extremely fast, particularly on updating values).
Unfortunately, it corrupted the entire data layer of 8+ million records
(for which ArcCatalog could take days to update the values of one single
column)!  At the end, ArcCatalog won't open (preview) the layer (though
it recognized its existence and new structure) and ArcMap was confused
(showing empty layer and no records), even though every record is there.


My hunches are that ESRI's data object structures/schemas in PGDB or SDE
should be changed/modified outside ESRI's products (e.g. ArcCatalog,
Toolbox, ArcMap, ArcSDE, ...), though I have not encountered problems
when changing/updating the values of layer table columns in SQLsvr SDE
using commandline commands.  

Cheers!


Yurong Tan, Ph.D., Program Analyst/GIS
PSSG - Field Unit of ADUSH for Policy and Planning
Department of Veterans Affairs
Tel:  352-374-6080 (x5382)
Fax: 352-374-6119
___________________________________
They all gave some and some gave all!
 
 
 
 
-----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 John Marquez
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 10:01 AM
To: Ken Stocks
Cc: shrug-l at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: shrug-l: RE: Renaming a field name

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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