topic Re: 'Text' vs 'String' keyword for field attribute creation and description in Python Questions

'Text' vs 'String' keyword for field attribute creation and description

GeorgeNewbury — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 13:36:46 GMT

Any idea why the input requirements for adding a string/text field is different than the 'type' attribute for a string/text field?

For example:

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myfc = r'C:\Foo\bar.gdb\somefc'

arcpy.AddField_management(myfc, 'MyStringField', 'TEXT',5)

myfc_pyobject = arcpy.ListFields(myfc,'MyStringField')[0]

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myfc_pyobject.type would print out 'String'

Seems like they should be the same.

Thanks

George

Re: 'Text' vs 'String' keyword for field attribute creation and description

JoshuaBixby — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 14:47:08 GMT

Consistency would be great, but this is covered/addressed in the Field—Help | ArcGIS Desktop :

The field type.
Blob —Blob
Date —Date
Double —Double
Geometry —Geometry
GlobalID —Global ID
Guid —Guid
Integer —Integer (Long Integer)
OID —Object ID
Raster —Raster
Single —Single (Float)
SmallInteger —Small Integer (Short Integer)
String —String (Text)

Similar/same data types aren't always called the same thing in different systems, and ArcGIS has to balance data type names between ArcObjects, Python, DBMSs, etc.... I think "string" is more common in programming languanges but "text" is more user friendly.

Re: 'Text' vs 'String' keyword for field attribute creation and description

GeorgeNewbury — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 17:15:12 GMT

Thanks, I've probably seen that part of the help 100s of times but never actually digested the 'String to TEXT' part in the note.

Thanks

George