Script to join .csv file to shapefile and export changing column names

Question

I have a shapefile with an attribute table like this:

FID   Shape      ID
0     Polgyon    3 
1     Polgyon    3
2     Polygon    3
3     Polygon    3

and numerous csv files which look something like this:

FID   p-value  t-stat
0     0.50     0.0004
1     0.01     0.0006
2     0.02     0.0007
3     0.04     0.0008

and I am joining the csv files to the shapefile and then exporting like this:

import arcpy, os
arcpy.CheckOutExtension('Spatial')

arcpy.env.workspace=r'H:\path_to_csv_files'
shapefile=r'H:\pathway_to_shapefile.shp'
out=r'H:\output_pathway'
#loop through csv files  
for table in arcpy.ListTables("*"):  
#Create a new feature layer, this will remove previous join  
  arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(shapefile, "parcelLyr")  
#   Join table to feature layer  
  arcpy.AddJoin_management("parcelLyr", "FID", table, "FID", 'KEEP_COMMON') 
  tableName = table.split(".")[0] 
  if not os.path.isdir(out):
            os.mkdir(out)
#   #Export joined layer to new feature clas  
  arcpy.FeatureClassToFeatureClass_conversion("parcelLyr", out, tableName)

but my out put table looks like this:

FID   Shape      ID  NDVI__5_cs   NDVI__5__1
0     Polgyon    3   0.50         0.0004
1     Polgyon    3   0.01         0.0006
2     Polygon    3   0.02         0.0007 
3     Polygon    3   0.04         0.0008

NDVI_5.csv is the name of my first csv file so it is for some reason putting the name of the csv file as the column headers after the join. When I do the join manually in arcgis this doesn't happen though.

Answer 1

As commented by @MichaelMiles-Stimson:

Try JoinField http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#//001700000065000000, it does everything your script does in one line. You might want to edit your column headers, dashes in field names are not allowed.

and:

Also the Fully Qualified Field Names setting http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#//001w00000008000000 set to False may help in your join, it should prevent the join name being used in the field name (i.e. p_value instead of NDVI_5_CSV.p_value) which is being shortened to the maximum field name length for a shape file by FeatureClassToFeatureClass.