topic Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer in ArcMap Questions

A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

ScottRobinson — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 14:20:17 GMT

Our foresters create new polygon features of harvest blocks they plan to harvest in the future. Each one is attributed with a start date for the harvest. I need to group them by year and symbolize them without having go into the layer properties and adding any new dates. Being able to symbolize a range (ie. 1/1/2021 to 12/31/2021) would be the best solution but I know I can't use quantity renderers.

Anyone have a good workaround?

Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

RickeyFight — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 14:46:30 GMT

@ScottRobinson

Are you trying to do this on ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS PRO, or desktop?

Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

ScottRobinson — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 14:50:08 GMT

Apologies for not specifying; ArcGIS Desktop.

Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

KoryKramer — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 15:52:54 GMT

@ScottRobinson If all the dates are in a standard format, you could just split the year out into a new field

Using something like !DATE![-4:] in the Field Calculator.

Then just symbolize using Unique Value on the year.

There are probably a number of other ways to do this, but this one should work pretty easily.

Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

ScottRobinson — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:28:27 GMT

I've done that and it works. I've also used year() and that works, too. Trouble is our foresters are continually adding new polygons with new dates. Those won't get picked up unless I go in and do the field calculator.

Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

KoryKramer — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:32:34 GMT

OK, so you need it calculated automatically when a new feature is added. Have you looked into using Attribute Assistant https://solutions.arcgis.com/shared/help/attribute-assistant/ (for ArcMap)?

In ArcGIS Pro, this would be done using Attribute Rules. https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/data/geodatabases/overview/an-overview-of-attribute-rules.htm

Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

RickeyFight — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:32:48 GMT

@ScottRobinson

You could write a python script that would run every night (or how frequently you would like) to run that calc

Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

ScottRobinson — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:48:29 GMT

Thanks, I'm going to explore this.

Re: A workaround for symbolizing a range of dates without using a quantity renderer

ScottRobinson — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 17:48:59 GMT

I'm going to look into this as well, thanks.