Model builder: add join doesn't preserve column names

[mattwilliams2]

Hi,

I'm having some issues using the 'add join' tool within model builder. The output table always results in 'TableName_1, TableName_2, etc.. I would like the output to preserve the column name so it would look something like 'TableName_ColumnName'. I've tried selecting the maintain field names options but still no luck. Attached is the model jpg. Any ideas?

[Anonymous User]

The only thing I can think of is that you are exporting those feature layers to shapefiles, and shapefiles can only store field names with up to 10 characters.  The field names will be truncated down to 10 characters.  So if you are using the fully qualified field names the name of the table the field is coming from, this is going to take up a lot of that 10 character limit that you should be aware of when using shapefiles.

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//002t0000000m000000