Obtaining friendly names for ArcMap layer data types

Question

Using ArcObjects, is there a way to programmatically obtain the "friendly name" for a layer's data type as seen in the ArcMap Source tab for layers in a map document?

e.g.:

• File System Raster
• Shapefile Feature Class
• Tiled Internet Layer

Or is this ArcMap-specific code and not exposed to ArcObjects?

Answer 1

This information is provided by the INativeType interface. You can access the native type for a given layer's data source as shown below (I hope you dont mind some VBA, should be easy to follow):

Sub DisplayLayerDataTypeString()

  Dim pDoc As IMxDocument
  Dim pLayer As ILayer
  Dim pDataLayer As IDataLayer
  Dim pDataSourceName As IName
  Dim pNativeTypeInfo As INativeTypeInfo
  Dim pNativeType As INativeType

    Set pDoc = Application.Document
    Set pLayer = pDoc.FocusMap.Layer(0)

    If Not TypeOf pLayer Is IDataLayer Then
      Debug.Print "Not a data layer"
      Exit Sub
    End If

    Set pDataLayer = pLayer
    Set pDataSourceName = pDataLayer.DataSourceName

    If Not TypeOf pDataSourceName Is INativeTypeInfo Then
      Debug.Print "Not a native type data source"
      Exit Sub
    End If

    Set pNativeTypeInfo = pDataSourceName
    Set pNativeType = pNativeTypeInfo.NativeType

    Debug.Print pNativeType.Description


End Sub