Ability to conflate similarly named columns

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What new feature would you like to see implemented? How will you use it?

Give the user the option to conflate columns (perhaps only on merge).
This is not the same as a multi-column join/key.

Using the MBTA subway station and MBCR commuter rail station KML, a merger of 
the two tables gives 2 sets of 3-identically-named columns: geometry, 
description and name. I understand the desire to keep things separate for 
restriction/attribution purposes, but where a user has the ACLs to touch both 
source columns, they should (have the option to) be combined. With the 
duplicate columns, the table is twice as wide as necessary and more difficult 
to work with. In addition, the attribute display bubble in map view has half 
the entries unused, and the particular fields with values (despite having the 
same names) varies depending on which table the location is from.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by c...@sciencefromscientists.org on 21 Sep 2011 at 11:45

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I appreciate the suggestion and the motivation behind it. This is a very hard 
problem to get right in the general sense of a feature in the application.

Meanwhile, please note that you can configure the map info window contents 
(While in the Map view, click "Configure info window") to not show all of the 
columns. 

Hope that helps, 

-Rebecca 

Original comment by rshap...@google.com on 29 Sep 2011 at 6:06

• Changed state: Acknowledged