Changing Field Name in ArcGIS Desktop

How can I change the field names (not the alias) in ArcGIS 10.2? I already found this page on ArcGIS support: "Renaming shapefile fields (Defense Mapping)" but there is is not "Defense Mapping" on Customized Mode Categories In my ArcCatalog! Without access to Defense Mapping, how can I change the field names?

65.3k 29 29 gold badges 112 112 silver badges 343 343 bronze badges asked Dec 21, 2013 at 13:21 user1106951 user1106951 1,498 2 2 gold badges 18 18 silver badges 29 29 bronze badges

9 Answers 9

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.

I have not installed 10.2.1 on a virtual machine yet (was released just a day ago), but my guess is that by feature class here Esri means both geodatabase feature classes and shapefiles, but I am not 100% on that.

This tool is available starting with 10.2.1.

answered Dec 21, 2013 at 17:11 Alex Tereshenkov Alex Tereshenkov 30k 4 4 gold badges 54 54 silver badges 119 119 bronze badges

At 10.2.1 the Alter Field tool for ArcGIS Desktop is not available except with an ArcGIS Advanced license despite what the documentation says. Just confirmed with ESRI Canada support team that this is the case.

Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 13:40 Thanks for the update. Looking forward to test on 10.2.2 coming soon. Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 14:42 This moves the column to the end. any work around for that? Commented Apr 22, 2014 at 19:52

@SoilSciGuy there is an around, and it is work, but it works ;-) How to reorder fields (permanently) in a file geodatabase

Commented Dec 5, 2014 at 19:53

@SoilSciGuy I am not seeing that it moves the column to the end. I'm doing this in ArcCatalog 10.4 (maybe they fixed it)

Commented Jul 21, 2016 at 13:25

In short you cannot change a field name in a shapefile. What you need to do is create a new field of the same type but with your new name then copy the contents of the old field into it, then delete the old field.

answered Dec 21, 2013 at 14:40 44.1k 5 5 gold badges 41 41 silver badges 82 82 bronze badges

.. or start using geodatabase where you can change field name directly in the feature class properties.

Commented Apr 9, 2014 at 14:45 I'm using a geodatabase and I can only change the field alias, not the name. Am I missing something? Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 14:39

You cannot rename a field in a personal or file geodatabase. Not sure about SDE. Maybe. Same as with the shapefile, you have to create a new field copy the data over, then delete the old field. Unfortunatelly, the new field will be the last field. in order to change the order of the fiels in a feature class or shapefile you need to create an emty one with the fields in the correct order, then load the features.

Commented Aug 2, 2016 at 17:35

I stand corrected. Just read @AlexTereshenkov's post below and apparently you now can rename fields in a geodatabase with the GP tool.