Renaming field using ArcPy?

Question

What I need to do:

1. rename a field name of a table/feature class
2. copy all values to the new field

So far I have done following code as @artwork21 suggests:

import sys
import traceback
import arcpy
from arcpy import env

## ARGUMENTS
# argv[1] = input table/feature class path
# argv[2] = input old field name
# argv[3] = input new field name  

path = sys.argv[1]
oldFieldName = sys.argv[2] 
newFieldName = sys.argv[3] 

env.overwriteOutput = True

fields = arcpy.ListFields(path)
for field in fields:
    if field.aliasName == oldFieldName:
        if not oldFieldName == newFieldName:
            fieldType = field.type
            # Add new field
            arcpy.AddField_management(path, newFieldName, fieldType)
            #Calculates the new field based on old field values
            arcpy.CalculateField_management(path, newFieldName, "!"+oldFieldName+"!", "PYTHON", "")
            # Delete the old field (if necessary)
            arcpy.DeleteField_management(path, oldFieldName)

How can I map field.type to AddField_management method's field type? And while the field is in a middle place, then field deleted from middle and added to the last. That does not looks like as if field name is renamed.

Is there any better solution that help me to do these things?

Answer 1

Try this using a combination of Add Field, Calculate Field, and Delete Field arcpy tools:

if fieldInfo.getFieldName(index) == "status":
    arcpy.AddField_management(layer, "stat", "TEXT", "", "", "50", "",        "NULLABLE", "NON_REQUIRED", "")                     
    arcpy.CalculateField_management(layer, "stat", "!status!", "PYTHON_9.3", "")
    arcpy.DeleteField_management(layer, "status")

Answer 2

You can now rename a field using core ArcGIS Desktop GP tool - Alter Field (Data Management). This tool provides the ability to rename fields or rename field aliases for any geodatabase table or feature class.

This tool is available starting with 10.2.1.

Answer 3

To rename a field in a table or feature class I would try the procedure described here.

1. Start ArcMap and open the Catalog window.
2. Locate the database that contains the table you want to alter.
3. Right-click the table and click Properties.
4. Click the Fields tab.
5. Click on the existing text in the Field Name column and type a new name.

I just tested this on a file geodatabase table using ArcGIS for Desktop Standard 10.1 SP1 and it worked fine.

Unfortunately, after writing this I searched the What's New in ArcGIS 10.1 PDF file and found that this functionality may have been added at that version - still it could be worth testing the latest service pack of 10.0 to see if it was back ported there too.

Answer 4

two big problems with the code:

• if the dataType is not a FeatureLayer, the program will skip over the fieldinfo manipulations, and then try to set the value to a new/renamed field that was never created/renamed

• The two lines:

  gValue = row.getValue("status")

  row.setValue("stat", gValue)

  have a big problem. If the earlier code worked The field "status" doesn't exist.

Answer 5

How can I map field.type to AddField_management method's field type?

This is done automatically, according to this post.

And while the field is in a middle place, then field deleted from middle and added to the last. That does not looks like as if field name is renamed. Is there any better solution that help me to do these things?

As I mentioned in your other question, your only other options are to drop and re-create the whole feature class/table or modify the column definition in the underlying DBMS.

I suppose you could delete all user columns and re-create them in the desired order but that's a little crazy. The script in this answer does exactly that, you could probably adapt it to your needs.