How to delete a custom field?

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to delete a custom field? I can't find anything on this on the Community or Google. I created a few fields and discovered later that we don't need them. If they can't be deleted, is there any harm in having them?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

You cannot delete custom fields but you can hide them. In 'field managemet' (where you create custom fields), you do this under 'Field actions'. The system does not let you delete fields because this leaves you open to accidently deleting data.

The only hazard of keeping an unused field is that it can make your list of fields long and messy. If you or your team can't find the field you want, you are more likely to accidently make duplicates.

A neat list of fields is an easy-to-use list of fields!

Cheers,
Sarah

[Anonymous]

I rename custom fields I'd like to delete as "Not in use 1", "Not in use 2" etc. Then when I have to create a new custom field I just re-use one of them. 

[Dory_Viscoglio]

I like Nadia's idea, but I'd suggest clearing out any data values that are currently in those fields before reusing them... Otherwise, it could lead to some messy data.

[Heidi_Lay]

Can we change the API Name of custom fields? This would be ideal if we are looking at re-using fields we no longer need.