Released

Stop the function of Shapefile Writer adding "Q_" to attribute names

Related products:Integrations

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 7, 2023
3 replies
107 views

takashi

I noticed that Shapefile Writer in FME 2022 adds prefix "Q_" to destination attribute names beginning with a Japanese character.

See the attached screenshot.

I think it's a side effect caused by the design to automatically avoid attribute names starting with a digit or a symbol, but it's just annoying for Japanese and other non-English users.

I found a workaround, that is removing this line from {FME_HOME}/metafile/shapefile.fmf".

=========

ATTRIBUTE_CASE FIRST_ALPHA

=========

However, it's hard to find this workaround for most users.

I think it would be ideal if you could add an FME option in FME Workbench interface in order to users can swith the function on/off.

This post is closed to further activity.
It may be an old question, an answered question, an implemented idea, or a notification-only post.
Please check post dates before relying on any information in a question or answer.
For follow-up or related questions, please post a new question or idea.
If there is a genuine update to be made, please contact us and request that the post is reopened.

takashi
Author
Forum|Forum|3 years ago
April 12, 2023

Is there any update about this? @natalieatsafe

The workaround I have mentioned above just removes "Q_" on Workbench interface. In fact, FME still adds "Q_" to attribute names starting with a Japanese character in the destination Shapefile datasets implicitly.

It's a critical issue for non-English tongue users.

I strongly hope the disturbing function - adding "Q_" to attribute names automatically - would be removed as soon as possible.

Why not inspect features with Visual/Data Preview and Feature/Record Information before writing them into a destination dataset?