Converting Feet and inches e.g. 5' 10" to whole number inches...

Question

I have a field "height" and its in x" y' . I need to convert this to inches and then multiple by 2.54 to update "height_cm" field.

DanPatterson_Retired · Answer

Using Calculate Field

Calculate Field—Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop

with the Python parser and a code block

JoshuaAdams1 · Answer

How would this work for a list of attributes (entire table)? Goal is to not alter the height column but to read the imperial units x'x" in column height and populate another column height_cm

DanPatterson_Retired · Answer

Nothing like a brain warmup before going to sleep;) If you have any blanks or nulls, I don't check for them so only run this in the field calculator for valid heights The result is a number, if you want a string replace line 7 with return str((a + b) *2.54);‍‍ # ---- python code block section def metric_is_better(val): r"""convert from 6' 2" to metric""" ft, inch = val.split(" ") a = int(ft[0]) * 12 b = int(inch[0]) return (a + b) *2.54 # expression metric_is_better(!YourFieldName!) """ Example... Yes... this is how you have to encode when you use ' and " in strings val = r"""6' 2\"""" val '6\' 2\"' metric_is_better(val) 187.96 # the result‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍