topic Re: Exporting from SDE Feature Class to Shapefile, Field Name Issue in Mapping Questions

Exporting from SDE Feature Class to Shapefile, Field Name Issue

BenVan_Kesteren1 — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 05:58:07 GMT

Hey All,

I have a feature class that resides within my SDE, I have added this to an ArcMap document, and created a join to a SQL Query Layer, the Table view looks good, showing field names, not alias.

So I then run the Feature Class to Feature Class tool to convert it to a shapefile.

I then take a look at the resultant shapefile, and I note that the field names have been exported, not retaining the Alias as viewed within the MXD.

What I am wanting is to retain the field alias (or as much as possible with the naming constraints of a shapefile). Any ideas on how I can achieve this?

Here is the original Feature Class properties:

I think create a join to my SQL Query Layer:

I then run Feature Class to Feature Class tool, and this is the name of the output fields:

Re: Exporting from SDE Feature Class to Shapefile, Field Name Issue

DanPatterson_Retired — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 06:25:57 GMT

Do you try the field mapping option ?

Re: Exporting from SDE Feature Class to Shapefile, Field Name Issue

NeilAyres — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 06:30:22 GMT

There are a lot of restrictions in the 30(?) year old shapefile format. One is the width of the column headers, which I think is 10 characters.

Don't think that alias' are supported at all.

ESRI Shapefile / DBF

geotools - How to bypass 10 character limit of field name in ShapeFiles? - Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange

Re: Exporting from SDE Feature Class to Shapefile, Field Name Issue

BenVan_Kesteren1 — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 21:27:20 GMT

Excellent, exactly what I require. I previously thought field mapping was for changing field types from one to another, I didn't realise that we could rename at the same time.

Thats fantastic, exactly what I required.

Cheers