Hi everyone .. Changing values in an existing field

Question

have a custom field that has initials in eg jc, ab, do, mh  etc...but now want to have full names such as Jim carr, Andy bubble, David odd, michael Henderson etc and more that were in the original field.... What's the best way to do this, just create a new custom field or can I do a mapping exercise as obviously already have records that just have the initials. Thanks

John carr · Answer

Nic yes the last thing you suggested is what I want to do....so

1) create new field with full names

2) add new field to project

3) map existing field with initials for existing records to new field so for a record that currently shows jc I will want the new field to say Jim Carr.

4) remove old field with initials and new field only displayed.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

It depends on the goal.  I'm not sure exactly what your aim is, so it might be easier to say what is happening behind the scenes.

When you've got an option in a select list, it's tied to the issue via an id, not the actual content (it used to be content, but that changed in Jira 4.something if my memory serves).  So what JIRA actually has in the database is something like "for issue abc-123, custom field 10010 stores option 10410".  When told to display the field, it goes off to an "options" table and says "what's the label for option 10410?", to which the response is currently "jc".  If you change the label of the option to "Jim Carr", no issue data changes, it's just the label.

That change applies globally - all "jc" options will now display as "Jim Carr".  If you don't want to upset other projects, then yes, you will need a *new* field and have do do some bulk edits.  Probably "project = A and initials field = jc", then the update will be "set new name field to Jim Carr"

John carr · Answer

This is a select list, so if it says jc just rename this to Jim Carr.....

so the project I am in has just initials what do I do if I don't want to change the field itself in case it is used in other projects...can I map jc to Jim Carr in the new field update all the current records in the project and remove the old field with just initials so all records will then have my new field but instead of displaying jc it will display Jim carr...so do I just use this bulk edit option?