[GRASS-dev] [grass-code I][557] v.overlay: should not allow column names of length > 10 in dbf

[Maciej Sieczka]

Off-list we have narrowed the problem down. Summary:



The cuplrit is a bug in v.overlay that it creates DBF tables
with column names longer than 10.

To reproduce please download the sample location [1], enter
PERMANENT and do:

$ v.overlay ainput=cities binput=test out=cities_test

$ v.info -c cities_test

Displaying column types/names for database connection of
layer 1:
INTEGER|cat
INTEGER|a_cat
INTEGER|b_cat
DOUBLE PRECISION|b_NB_POLYG

So GRASS sees 4 columns, but as can be checked in a
spreadsheet there are 5:

cat
a_cat
b_cat
b_NB_POLYG
b_NB_POLYG1

The last one's name is longer than 10, thus any GRASS
command will ignore it at input, leading to corrupted output
table. It's v.overlay's fault that it created a bad table.

Another thing: could/should GRASS commands handle DBF column
names longer than 10 in DBF table for reading?

[1]http://wald.intevation.org/tracker/download.php/21/204/557/254/overlaybug.tar.bz2