idea ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table in Data Management Ideas

ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

NewingtonConnecticut — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 21:49:47 GMT

After creating a feature class, it would be convenient to go back after data input, and make changes to the field ordering (position).

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

EricPaitz — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:55:51 GMT

If your Feature Class is an SDE Feature Class then this can only be done if the underlying RDBMS can support changing the field as you described. If the RDBMS does not support altering an existing field then there is nothing ESRI can do other then actually creating a new field with a new name, calculating the new values and then dropping the old field. What if you are converting from string to number and the conversion fails? The RDBMS usually will roll back the whole update query. It might be done using small groups of records or record by record but this would be very slow for large tables. If you wanted to keep the same field name then the existing field name would have to be changed so the new field (with the new type) can be added. If the RDBMS does not allow an existing field to be renamed you could not keep the same field name without creating the field twice. If this field was a foreign-key to a field in another table I don’t think the field can be dropped without removing the foreign key constraint. This could be very problematic to implement. This might only be possible if the Feature Class is stored in a File GDB because ESRI has full control of its implementation. It’s really only possible if the RDBMS can do it and then there is the question of keeping the user experience the same across all GeoDatabase implementations.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

JulieLuetzelschwab — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:21:50 GMT

It would be nice to be able to easily rearrange fields too, without having to create a new output feature class.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

naokomeyer1 — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:16:28 GMT

Both of them are really good ideas.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

JasonVerachtert — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:32:16 GMT

I have been looking for this to happen for years. If it is in SDE (on SQL Server) or a Personal GDB then it can be done in MS SQL or MS Access respectivly, but for Shapefiles or the File GDB you are out of luck. I refuse to use the new File GDB for this reason (and the field reordering, but that is a different issue).

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

CarlPalmer — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:57:27 GMT

For file geodatabases, this would be a very handy feature during prototyping when I frequently find myself correcting oversights and other initial design errors.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

SimonShin1 — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:34:23 GMT

Promoted this to 3000 Points. I think this is a feasible idea.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

CyrilMrva1 — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:21:24 GMT

For shapefiles can be used free Czech software Janitor (http://janitor.cenia.cz/www/j2_dwnfile.php/dwn/app/janitor2.5.1.exe?f=82). The program JanDat can change the name, field type and some properties dbf tables and dbf tables belonging to shp. I also was looking for a Python module, which could change the structure dbf table, but I found only a useful module for dBASE III. (SHP uses dBASE IV :).

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

CarlosIsaac_Cabrera — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:12:30 GMT

Although I like the idea of this, I think takes just as much time to create a new field and copy the data over. There are also further complications when changing data type. If this was added I see it as a time cost that would take longer than just creating the new field and populating with the calculator.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

BarbaraKent — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:32:19 GMT

The ability to rename/update an existing field or reposition the placement of a field within a table are commands that were extremely useful in Arc/Info Workstation. It would be so nice to have this functionality in ArcGIS Desktop.

Likewise, the ability to add a new item to a table and designate it's placement in that table (the old Arc/Info ADDITEM command) is greatly missed. Please add these to Desktop.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

HeinrichMalina — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:21:51 GMT

Changes to field name, field type and field position is also very much wanted for Shapefiles.
Using a Czech software for such a common task is just a work around.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

JudithCauldwell — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:18:34 GMT

I normally have to cheat (sorry workaround) and take the dbf into Access (normally renaming it so it's less than eight characters long so Access recognises it), it's a pain, surely such a simple database task should be available in ArcGIS. Especially useful would be the ability to change field names, lengths and order.

Shapefiles, gdb, sde who cares what the data is held as or in - needs change overtime.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

DanielGrillo — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 06:06:07 GMT

Yep... the reason I user ET Geowizards was because I want to reorder fields and it would be really nice if Esri put this ability back in... I am a workstation left over :)

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

BillTedford — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:46:14 GMT

GDBs require this field order manipulation functionality, simple request on user's side, long overdue.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

John_S — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:05:24 GMT

I agree that renaming fields has challenges based on your RDBMS, but, reordering the fields should be really simple. I'm still using 9.3.1, but I've heard now in 10, you can reorder fields within an ArcMap session. Why not take this functionality and put it on the server side instead of limiting it to the MXD side of things.
All you would have to do is add a short, simple, table that lists the fields and their position and expose a table, tab, or other way to easily edit the "Position Number" of each field.
The table could look something like:
[Feature Dataset], [Feature Class], [Field Name], [Field Position]

Example:

Dataset 1, Polygon_Test_fc, "GLOBAL_ID", 3
Dataset 1, Polygon_Test_fc, "ROAD_NAME", 1
Dataset 1, Polygon_Test_fc, "ALIAS_NAME1", 2

So, when accessing the "Polygon_Test_fc" feature class, the attribute table would show up with the Road name, followed by the Alias name, followed by the GID by default.

The [Field Position] could be a short integer, the others would be whatever unique identifier, string, or whatever is convenient to integrate with existing indentifiers for this information.

Then, all you would have to do is tell the desktop software, ArcGIS Server, etc... that, when they access this data, first review this table, and then apply that order to the fields in displaying them client side.

Maybe I'm way off the mark on this one, not sure, but, that's what comes to my mind as a really quick and strait-forward solution to providing at least one of these very highly demanded features.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

JurajKrumpolec — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:27:48 GMT

When this will be possible (field rename), ArcMap should also ensure automatic update of every query, label or symbology linked to renamed field either in currently opened MXDs or when map document with modified layer is opened.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

GrantCrosswell — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:15:43 GMT

Yes also agree. Field order is a function we would like to have other GIS staff use in a personal geodatabase to prepare layers for submission to central gis database.
Currently we export XML schema, shuffle the field array order, load the schema and load the data.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

DanielGrillo — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:16:09 GMT

Get on with it ESRI... we are not asking for much...

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

AhmedSaad — Sat, 28 May 2011 12:02:29 GMT

Some RDMS may have limitations hindering the creation of such tool. However, different RDMS can be inspected by the tool to indentify if it is possible or not ... So the tool can be created but will not run on all systems and that is acceptable.

Re: ArcGIS should allow the ability to permanently reorder fields in a table

Anonymous User — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:47:22 GMT

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all of your input. We are currently considering adding the ability to rename fields and change some of the field properties to a future release.

Regards,

Despina M.