topic Removing blank values via Arcade Expression in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Removing blank values via Arcade Expression

KieranClark — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 19:08:22 GMT

Hi folks,

I've created a map layout that pulls data from various fields in our new database. Everything is connected and working great now and all the data is coming across mostly correct. The one remaining hurdle I have right now is that when trying to pull data for System Supplier, System Installer and Owner(s) it displays the correct company names but it also carries over a bunch of blank values.

Like so (outlined in red):

My Arcade expression is as follows.

var role = $feature.ROLE_ID If(role == 12){ return $feature.COMPANY_NAME }

The intent is to check if a company is ROLE_ID 12 (System Supplier in this case) and return the Company name if it is.

Where I'm stuck is I am not sure why it is even accounting for other companies that don't match the ROLE_ID and fill up my data fields with blanks.

I'm sure it's something simple I'm overlooking but I've been staring at this all day and could use a fresh pair of eyes...

Re: Removing blank values via Arcade Expression

jcarlson — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 19:23:46 GMT

That appears to be a dynamic text layout element. What you're seeing is being caused by the delimiter on the dynamic text. By default, the delimiter includes a whitespace character in addition to whatever you include.

When you define a delimiter, it will return all the values in the table, even the nulls, separated by that delimeter:

Since you're using an Arcade expression, try this:

var role = Boolean($feature.ROLE_ID == 12); if(role){ return $feature.COMPANY_NAME + ', ' }

A bit better, but there's a pesky comma at the end of the string. Since your expression is simply filtering based on an attribute, it's simpler to add a Custom query to the dynamic text itself.

Re: Removing blank values via Arcade Expression

KieranClark — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 19:37:32 GMT

Wow, yes this is absolutely what I wanted. Thank you!

Re: Removing blank values via Arcade Expression

KieranClark — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:19:04 GMT

Hi Josh,

Sorry to bug you again but I have one last tweak I'm trying to figure out.

Some cable systems (mostly planned) do not have a System Installer available yet. What I would like to do is if there are no companies that match ROLE_ID of 11 (System Installer) then display "Not Available"

Re: Removing blank values via Arcade Expression

jcarlson — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:53:33 GMT

Oh, that's tricky. Since you're using a dynamic text element, I don't think there's a "no data" option to return a separate string when there are no values.

Since you're using Arcade per-feature, anything you add to that expression will end up repeating for each row, too, so we can't do it there.

Here's a possible workaround: use the function Distinct on the layer to return the distinct values for the field in question, and insert your "Not Available" string if the length of the returned array is 0. You'd need some way of then limiting the dynamic text element to show the first value in the table. I haven't tested it, but it's the only think I can think of that might work.

Re: Removing blank values via Arcade Expression

KieranClark — Mon, 17 May 2021 19:14:40 GMT

Hi Josh,

I'm trying to tackle this issue again after a few weeks of working on other things for this publication and I'm having a little trouble understanding how you're suggesting to use the Distinct function. I'm not sure how to set it up properly to even return a value of 0 if nothing matches.