Suppressing msg error "wrong string value" or "maybe too large for the field"

Question

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, but I am an enthusiast of ESRI Forums since Arcgis 3.x! :cool:

I am doing some calculations with some shapefiles, but sometimes I am receiving the annoying message: [ATTACH=CONFIG]18833[/ATTACH], showing the error message "value may be too large for the field" or "trying to add a string to a number field".

Ok, the destination field type is 'DATE' and I know that the results COULD BE COME in string. Because of that, I wrote an "else" in the codeblock (bellow) to avoid this kind of error, but isn't working!

[INDENT]Dim MyCode
If [DATEFIELD] <> "STRING TEXT" Then
MyCode = [DATEFIELD]
Else
MyCode = null
End if[/INDENT]

Anyone knows how to prevent this warning messages or can help to improve my simples codeblock to avoid that messages?

error_too_large.PNG

MarcinGasior · Answer

I've run exactly the same code as you and get no error. Look at the screenshot:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]18878[/ATTACH]

What ArcGIS wersion and which service pack are you using. I've seen some problems with 'null' in ArcGIS 10 pre-sp4 configurations.

Btw, you can try with Python code. Here's an example which works for me:
Codeblock:def calDate(text):
  if text <> "Uncompleted":
    return text[:10]
  else:
    return None

Datefield = 
calDate(!TEXTFIELD!)

VBScript_result.png

LeandroNovaes · Answer

I am sorry but this code won't work. In my particularly case, I have to transfer part of string field Left ([TEXTFIELD],10) to a date field type [DATEFIELD]. For example: [INDENT][TEXTFIELD] Line 1 = "10/10/2012 - Date of Pay Stuff" [TEXTFIELD] Line 2 = "Uncompleted"[/INDENT] Codeblock: [INDENT]Dim MyCode If [TEXTFIELD] <> "Uncompleted" Then MyCode = Left ([TEXTFIELD],10) Else MyCode = null End if [/INDENT] Result: [INDENT]Line 1: 10/10/2012 Line 2: > msg error <[/INDENT]

KevinDunlop · Answer

Try

Dim MyCode
If TypeOf [DATEFIELD] Is Not String Then
MyCode = [DATEFIELD]
Else
MyCode = null
End if

You might need to do:

Dim MyCode
If TypeOf [DATEFIELD].value Is Not String Then
MyCode = [DATEFIELD]
Else
MyCode = null
End if