Sometimes, when you export feature class to a shp file, some of the field names are being truncated. How can I keep full field names after exporting the data in shp file?
Shapefiles field names have a maximum character length of 10 characters. This is a requirement of the format and cannot be overridden. Therefore there is no way to convert a field with a name longer than 10 characters into a shapefile without changing the name to fit the format requirement.
If the person I am providing the data to users ArcMap, I zip a file or personal geodatabase. If I must export to a shapefile I usually copy and paste one record from the original feature class into a spreadsheet and send the spreadsheet along with the shapefile. The spreadsheet would show what the full field names were before conversion to the shapefile.
You could set up aliases in a layer and export a layer file and send that layer file to the other user to display a readable field name, but the underlying field name will be truncated.
You can't, it is a limitation of the dbase format which is part of the shapefile. You have to go in and set an alias for use within a project.
Field names are limited to 10 bytes. When using english this is 10 characters. When using multibyte languages this can be significantly shorter. Using Kanji (Japanese) the charcters take up 2-4 characters. This potentially limits you to 2 character field names.
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