I have joined three sheets from an Excel file to a shapefile. Each sheet contains ACS data so some of the field names are duplicated. (Example: HC03_V17 is present in all three sheets: Economic, Social and Demographic.) This seems ok because when I look at the joined table before exporting it to a shapefile the titles contain a prefix for the sheet they came from and the actual ACS code that I can look up in the metadata file (see below).
When I export though I lose that naming convention. Instead, Codes like Economic$.HC03_V17 are transformed into something like Economic_12. This makes it quite difficult to go back to the ACS metadata and determine what that field data measures.
Is there a way to maintain the naming conventions that appear when I first add the join?
was there the option to use qualified field names? midway down this help topic, there is a suggestion that you can use this as an option when making joins permanent
https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/tool-reference/data-management/add-join.htm
Initially I was having the same issue and was seeing no change having that optional parameter in the Join GP tool checked or unchecked. I was still getting the long field names which include the table source followed by ".". Then I realized the same parameter exists in the Copy Features tool which is what exports the joined table. After unchecking that one I got the short field names I needed. Good to know and keep in mind what's under the Environments tab...
I appreciate you posting this. This took me too long to find and figure out. Now I know I have to uncheck that box twice (at the join AND when exporting feature - copy features).
Certainly, glad it was helpful. It took me a bit to figure out as well