|
|
When exporting model network data to shapefile format, the default export field names generated in the “open data export centre” are currently very awkward. The issue arises because many field names in ICM are longer than ten characters, but shapefiles are limited to ten characters for field names.
For subcatchments as an example, there are several sets of fields that, when truncated to ten characters, would result in identical field names, e.g. the “user_text_” fields, “user_number_”, “area_absolute_” and “area_percent”.
The issue is that the way the default names are generated, the suffix numbers don’t line up at all, which can cause confusion when working with the shapefile later on. E.g. for the “area_absolute_” fields:
“area_absolute_1” is truncated to ten characters, so ends up as “area_absol”
Then, “area_absolute_2” gets truncated to ten characters as well, but since this would result in an identical field name, the software instead truncates it to nine characters, and tacks a “1” onto the end, resulting in “area_abso1”
This pattern continues, so that “areas_absolute”s 2 to 10 end up as “area_abso”s 1 to 9, effectively offsetting the suffix numbers for each by one.
For area “area_absolute_11”, this pattern no longer works, since the single digit numbers are all used up, so instead, the software truncates the field to eight characters, and tacks a “01” onto the end, resulting in “area_abs01”
“area_absolute_12” similarly ends up as “area_abs02”
While I do understand the logic at work here, the results are very messy, with the original 1 to 12 sequence becoming “blank”, 1 to 9 (but offset), then 01 and 02. So this Idea is to suggest something be done to get the default names to work better. Maybe a special exception could be added to the code for generating field names, specifically for fields longer than 10 characters that end in number. If there are nine or less numbered fields, the default name would be truncated to nine characters, and the “correct” number could be added at the end. For series of fields where there are ten or more, you would need to truncate them to eight, then add the “correct” number at the end. Or maybe just universally for all fields where the last character is a number, then the default name would consist of the first eight characters, followed by the last two characters. There are a few ways this could be improved, and presumably it would take minimal coding work by your developers.
May we collect and use your data?
Learn more about the Third Party Services we use and our Privacy Statement. May we collect and use your data to tailor your experience?
Explore the benefits of a customized experience by managing your privacy settings for this site or visit our Privacy Statement to learn more about your options.
Thank you for the suggestion and thanks to those who voted.
We discussed your suggestion and we agree that it's important to address this behaviour when exporting to shape files. I will move this to "Under Consideration" so we gauge the interest of the wider ICM community whilst assessing the technical feasibility and associated effort to address this great suggestion/request.
I will keep you updated using the comments section on this platform.
Was just coming to suggest something along these lines, the fact that the exported field names don't match the names in the object properties within the software causes confusion. The shapefile field name limit is certainly a challenge, but as it is, it's causing confusion and misaligned fields when re-importing, even when re-importing unchanged exports.