topic Re: arcpy.ExcelToTable field name length limitation for in_memory output in Python Questions

arcpy.ExcelToTable field name length limitation for in_memory output

MaximeDemers — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 18:30:12 GMT

I found out there is a limitation of 10 characters for field names if you output arcpy.ExcelToTable() to a "in_memory" table.

Why? Is it because dbf format is used?

I dont have this limitation when I use "in_memory" with other tools such arcpy.CopyFeatures_management().

arcpy.ExcelToTable_conversion("C:\\temp\\input.xlsx", "in_memory\table")‍

Is there a way to use get rid of this limitation with arcpy.ExcelToTable() and "in_memory"?

Re: arcpy.ExcelToTable field name length limitation for in_memory output

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 19:41:22 GMT

Try adding a ValidateFieldName to your workflow to see what it returns since it validates it against the workspace and not the source. So for geodatabase, it would be longer, but in_memory or folder, there is no recommendation, but a shapefile would definitely have a limitation... see this also

http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/arcpy/get-started/working-with-geodatabases.htm

Re: arcpy.ExcelToTable field name length limitation for in_memory output

MaximeDemers — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:03:10 GMT

It appears there is not that limitation when using arcpy.TableToTable_conversion() instead of arcpy.ExcelToTable() but .xlsx is not supported. You will have to use .xls or other formats.

arcpy.TableToTable_conversion("c:\\temp\\input.xls", "in_memory", "table")‍‍‍‍

Re: arcpy.ExcelToTable field name length limitation for in_memory output

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 12:17:29 GMT

If the table is going out to a geodatabase table, but not a dbase table I would assume from the help

http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/tool-reference/conversion/table-to-table.htm

Re: arcpy.ExcelToTable field name length limitation for in_memory output

curtvprice — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 15:52:48 GMT

I really try to avoid long field names unless I absolutely need them, because if the dataset has to go through shapefile at some point (say to export to another software system) your field names will get truncated.

Geoprocessing considerations for shapefile output—Help | ArcGIS Desktop

Re: arcpy.ExcelToTable field name length limitation for in_memory output

MaximeDemers — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 16:05:15 GMT

Good advice, but I prefer to avoid shapefiles, JSON is a better format for sharing data between systems, especially over the net because it's a one file format and can be manipulated by almost every programming language directly.