topic Re: changing field data type in ArcGIS Enterprise Questions

changing field data type

ErikBlake — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:49:42 GMT

We are currently running 10.1 sp1. I was wondering why it is that after I remove all locks from our enterprise gdb I try to change one of our fields data type from a text to a long integer. It allows me to make the change but when I hit apply it just reverts back to its original text data type value. If I have any kind of text value in that field when I try to change to a long integer would that cause this behavior?

for example the field I want to change is "House_Num" which has its data type set to text. All the values in the field are numbers except for a couple that has text. would this cause it not to change and revert back to text after I hit apply?

Re: changing field data type

George_Thompson — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:59:16 GMT

Hi Erik,

This is expected behavior. There are "Some field properties are defined when the table or feature class is created and cannot be changed, including field type, length, precision, and scale."

I would recommend creating a new field in long integer and then filed calculate the numbers over to it. The fields with text in then will not work and need to be converted to a number.

Hopefully this help!

-George

GIS‌ Managing Data‌ Geodatabase‌

Re: changing field data type

JakeSkinner — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:03:45 GMT

Hi Erik,

I believe the text value is causing the issue. Take a look at the following link:

ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

If the field contains data, you cannot change data types that would lead to loss of data. For example, you cannot change a long integer or float to a short integer, or change a blob to a text.

Re: changing field data type

ErikBlake — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 13:04:04 GMT

Thanks George.