Can feature classes have the same name in two different feature datasets?

Question

I have an SDE Database called "Vector" which contains many feature datasets eg. Region_1, Region_2 etc. I have to reproject the feature classes inside these datasets.

Instead of creating a new geodatabase, I want to simply create a new feature dataset inside the existing database but call it Region_1_ETRS. All the reprojected feature classes will have their old names, thus making it very easy to reconstruct the map documents.

Unfortunately for me, when I reproject I get an error telling me that the name already exists. Does this mean that I can ́t have two feature classes with the same name in one geodatabase even though they are in different feature datasets?

• blah238: Actually you CAN have feature classes with the same name in an enterprise geodatabase as long as they each are owned by a different user/schema owner. E.g. USER1.streets and USER2.streets. However, I would not recommend it as there will be naming conflicts if you try to export it to a a non-enterprise geodatabase format, e.g. file GDB.

Answer 1

No, you cannot have two featureclasses in the same Geodatabase with the same Name, even if they are in different datasets.

Do not think of datasets as folders within the geodatabase. They are just containers of data, which will be used for a common purpose, like geometric/network datasets, having the same special reference.

In the RDBMS backend, the different FeatureClasses are just tables. This is one the main reasons why you cannot have 2 featureclasses with the same name. It doesn't matter that they are in different datasets, since the RDBMS backend has no concept of datasets.

Answer 2

No, you can ́t have two feature classes with the same name in one geodatabase even though they are in different feature datasets.