'Text' vs 'String' keyword for field attribute creation and description

GeorgeNewbury

Any idea why the input requirements for adding a string/text field is different than the 'type' attribute for a string/text field?

For example:

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myfc  =  r'C:\Foo\bar.gdb\somefc'

arcpy.AddField_management(myfc, 'MyStringField', 'TEXT',5)

myfc_pyobject = arcpy.ListFields(myfc,'MyStringField')[0]

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myfc_pyobject.type would print out 'String'

Seems like they should be the same.

Thanks

George

JoshuaBixby

Consistency would be great, but this is covered/addressed in the Field—Help | ArcGIS Desktop :

The field type.

• Blob —Blob
• Date —Date
• Double —Double
• Geometry —Geometry
• GlobalID —Global ID
• Guid —Guid
• Integer —Integer (Long Integer)
• OID —Object ID
• Raster —Raster
• Single —Single (Float)
• SmallInteger —Small Integer (Short Integer)
• String —String (Text)

Similar/same data types aren't always called the same thing in different systems, and ArcGIS has to balance data type names between ArcObjects, Python, DBMSs, etc....  I think "string" is more common in programming languanges but "text" is more user friendly.