Help - Can't delete a "space" in blank field. Map symbolizes it!

Question

Hello,

I hope somebody can help me to solve this problem.  First off... I have ArcView 10 (not Editor or Info).  Also I am using Shapefiles, not Geodatabases.

Whenever I went to Symbolize my map using one of the Fields in my attribute table, the map put one color on four "blank" fields.  On further inspection, these fields have one space in them (so they aren't truly empty).  However, every attempt I've made to delete this space doesn't work.  I've tried simply backspacing within the field.  I've tried typing a word, then backspacing.  I've tried copy and pasteing a completely blank field... but nothing works.  These four fields reset back to having a "space" in them and they continue to be symbolized.  And yes, I am positive that I'm in Edit mode.

Has anyone else encountered this?  Is there a solution I haven't tried?

Thanks for any help!
Raymond

JoshThompson1 · Answer

Perhaps another way to fix the problem would be to:

1. Open an edit session
2. Open the attribute table 
3. Select the records which need to be updated
4. Open the "Field Calculator"
5. For the field in target field, calc it to "" (either two single quotes or two double quotes depending on your data format).
6. If you want null values (rather than blanks), type in:  null

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23016[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]23017[/ATTACH]

Josh

calc_null.jpg

calc_blank.jpg

Anonymous User · Answer

If you want to remove the spaces, you can do this easily with the python parser in the field calculator.  Try this:
!field_name!.strip()

This will remove any extra whitespace, so it should take care of values that are just spaces in the field.  Be sure to set the parser to python before trying this.

RaymondArotin · Answer

If you use 'Add All Values' when you're setting up your symbology, even blank fields will be included. In fact I think if you click on the blank value in the symbology tab in layer properties it will highlight a single space...

If you don't want features with a blank value in that field to be symbolized, just remove that value from the symbology properties (and make sure '<all other values>' is unticked.

Hope that helps

Dan

Hi Dan.  That's not exactly my problem, but thank you for the reply.  I appreciate it.  I am okay with removing / unticking the individual symbology entrys.  I use Add All Values because there can be many properties in the fields that may be over-looked if I don't do that...

regardless...  I guess what I'm saying is: Why is ArcMap not allowing me to delete these "blank" character spaces in the attribute fields in the first place so I don't have to see all these empty fields in the symbology window?  Yes, I can "work around" this, but I'd rather take care of the problem than put a band-aid on it.

To further clarify... these are not "blank" fields... but rather there are four fields that contain ONE character (space bar) space in them... and I can't seem to delete it or change it.  (Unless I would put an actual "word" in there... which I don't want to do).  I want these four fields to be truly empty and be grouped with the rest of the "blank" values.