topic Re: Unable to Alter Field Name in Geodatabase Questions

Unable to Alter Field Name

JoshWhite — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 13:51:07 GMT

I download a file geodatabase from an outside source. For some reason when the file creator does a join the field names get really long so I attempt to shorten them back the original field name after I use the copy features tool to import them into my sde. I was using the Alter Fields tool but it has been failing. I keep getting an error that certain fields cannot be changed because they are a custom sde type column.

I would understand this if I was actually altering one of these types of fields but I am not. These are the fields I am trying to alter by removing the SDE_SDE_Parcels_

I just tried to do this manually since the tool was not working correctly. Any idea on how to get around this issue?

Re: Unable to Alter Field Name

AsrujitSengupta — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:10:39 GMT

Josh White what happens i you try to rename the fields in the File geodatabase itself and then try to load the data in the SDE geodatabase? Does that work?

Re: Unable to Alter Field Name

ChrisSmith7 — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:14:22 GMT

What version are you using? Have you tried it from the feature class properties view in ArcCatalog? Can you change the aliases? If SDE, maybe it's a perms issue...

Re: Unable to Alter Field Name

JoshWhite — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:25:09 GMT

Running everything manually as a test and that works, do you think I should run the alter fields tool in my model before I copy to my SDE?

Re: Unable to Alter Field Name

JoshWhite — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:29:28 GMT

I am using 10.3. Yes I have tried changing the fields in the properties view in ArcCatalog, that is what I was attempting to do when I captured the second screenshot. I didn't check to see if I could alter the aliases until after I tried what Asrujit suggested so it probably wouldn't be a good test at this point. I am also wondering about permissions BUT I am currently the only user other than a couple of feature services. Could the feature services possibly be creating a schema lock? Seems odd I can change some fields but not all of them though. The fields I am struggling to change are the fields that are original to the feature class and are not part of the table that is joined before being uploaded to the flexviewer that I am using clip & ship to download from. I hope all of that made sense.

Re: Unable to Alter Field Name

AsrujitSengupta — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:54:41 GMT

It doesn't seem to be a permission issue, as you can modify some of the other Field names.
It also doesn't seem like a Locks issue as you are able to rename the other fields.

Re: Unable to Alter Field Name

AsrujitSengupta — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:56:59 GMT

Yes, I'll recommend that, Make all the required changes in the File gdb itself and then load the data into the sde geodatabase.

Making these changes in the File gdb will be much easier and you won't have to worry about things like permissions, locks, etc.