idea Demote visual representation of nulls in table and attribute views in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Demote visual representation of nulls in table and attribute views

Matt-Goodman — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 19:08:32 GMT

Non-existent attributes stored as null are visually represented in the UX as <Null> (attribute table, attribute pane, etc.) There are multiple reasons I prefer displaying records with legitimately no attribute as blanks, instead of nulls, but the primary reason is for the ability to scan/read attribute interfaces more quickly: the blank cells are intuitively dismissed and prominence is given to the populated attribute cells.

Consider programmatically using a more subtle mid-tone gray for the text font of these <Null> cells.

Concept sample image of null values in the last column on the right (this example happens to be while using 'dark mode'):

Re: Accept empty string (blank, zero-length) in domains

BruceHarold — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 18:22:48 GMT

I really hope there is a better way to address the usability of null values than supporting empty strings in domains. When you have non-printing data in your fields that are not nulls you get bad behavior with attribute queries, statistical analyses etc.

Re: Demote visual representation of nulls in table and attribute views

Bud — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 19:59:08 GMT

For what it's worth:

In SQL clients like SQL Developer, we can change what text & background color is used to display nulls. For example, we can display nulls as blanks and change the background color to light grey.

So I wonder if something like that could be an option in Pro.

Also, this is how DB<>FIDDLE does it:

https://dbfiddle.uk/?rdbms=oracle_18&fiddle=be89134354ae358a516147ef1ddbbf7f

As you suggested, it's more subtle. But at the same time, it's also more differentiable, due to the different text color. It seems like a reasonable approach.