topic Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field in Geoprocessing Questions

Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 20:32:38 GMT

I have two fields that I need to concatenate together but I need to add zeros so one said has 4 digits and the other side has 2 digits. Both separated with a hypen. For Example, 0024-14.

This is the code I have written am I close???

Left([ACONTROL], 4, "-") & Right([ASECTION], 2)

So, it would be field ACONTROL with 4 digits and ASECTION with 2 digits.

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 21:36:49 GMT

In python

>>> for ACONTROL in [1,10,24]:
...  for ASECTION in [2,10,20]:
...   print"00{}-0{}".format(ACONTROL,ASECTION)
...   
001-02
001-010
001-020
0010-02
0010-010
0010-020
0024-02
0024-010
0024-020
>>>

or do you want the first condition to read 0001-02 (line 5) and the one on line 11 to read 0024-002?

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:22:01 GMT

I can write this code in Field calculator right??

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:56:06 GMT

for this specific case use

print"00{}-0{}".format(!ACONTROL!,!ASECTION!)

using the python parser

as I indicated there are other options depending on all your possible conditions

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

BruceNielsen — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 15:14:25 GMT

I think zfill would be a little more flexible:

print "%s-%s" % (!ACONTROL!.zfill(4), !ASECTION!.zfill(2))

That will automatically pad the input with the correct number of zeros.

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:09:11 GMT

I'm thinking I have to have it as a shapefile because I keep getting errors for the code. It keeps saying invalid syntax. I'm typing them as is. Do I have to put something in front of print??

I am typing in field calculator box

print"00{}-0{}".format(ACONTROL,ASECTION)

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:18:17 GMT

I am also trying print "%s-%s" % (!ACONTROL!.zfill(4), !ASECTION!.zfill(2)). It also contracts a syntax error.

Do I have to put anything before the print?

Should it be

(period) .print "%s-%s"% .......

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:21:47 GMT

"00{}-0{}".format(!ACONTROL!,!ASECTION!)

this assumes that you are using the python parser in the field calculator and you have two fields named as above, capitalized etc and in python fields are enclosed in ! ! 's

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:33:01 GMT

Typing it exactly like you have it. I am getting a ValueError : zero length field name in format. I have those field names so I'm not sure why it doesn't like it.

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 16:34:52 GMT

you added a text field...correct...and are doing the calculation there. a screen grab of your table with the field calculator would go a long way to shortening this thread

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 17:44:35 GMT

Yes! I just looked to double check. I'll attach 2 screen shots. One of the table one of the field calculator. Let me know if you need anything else. I am going to keep trying to figure it out.

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 17:54:20 GMT

Do I put something in place of the % marks? I am getting a syntax error.

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:06:20 GMT

Well there is something wrong with your field then, I have tried it with several records from your table in python IDE itself and in the field calculator on some of my test data...see the image...
I would suggest that you delete the field you are in...recreate it as a text field with an appropriate width (type it in to make sure you get an actual field width)...make sure you aren't in edit mode and try again...something in that process is going amiss. If that doesn't work, select the first few visible records and try again...if it works now, then you have something wrong with one of the records (is the field nullable??)

Good luck

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:20:26 GMT

Yeah, I'm not sure what is going on. I still get an error zero length field name in format. Could it be that my AControl and ASection are double fields not string??

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:22:01 GMT

Course the other thing is the first part can only be 4 numbers so how do I get it to add only the numbers I need? Also, no periods. I think I fix that by taking out the last {} right?

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:31:59 GMT

Grief...an important detail as you can see from the python example below

>>> a = 3653.000
>>> b = 1.000
>>> "00{}-0{}".format(a,b)
'003653.0-01.0'
>>>
>>> "00{}-0{}".format(int(a),int(b))
'003653-01'
>>>

see where I added the int in front of the a and the b ... do the same around your fieldnames

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:37:27 GMT

Yeah, I have no idea what is going on. I just made 3 new text fields and filled the first two with the data and then tried formula on third field. It still gives me an error of "zero length field name in format".

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:38:46 GMT

Could this error be because it is a dbf not a shapefile or feature class??

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:41:11 GMT

if they are text fields you don't need int, just try it on the original fields...select the first few records and use the formula with int in it. Also, you could right-click on your two fields, go to properties and show some decimal places in the fields so you know what you really have and not what it looks like

Re: Adding zeros or numbers in a Field

MichelleCouden1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:47:52 GMT

OK, I'll try all of that and see how it turns out. Thank you very much for all your help today!