topic Re: Remove Empty Spaces with Field Calculator in Geoprocessing Questions

Remove Empty Spaces with Field Calculator

NickArcher — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 16:18:09 GMT

Hi,

I have a fields that is populated with correct values, <Null>, and whitespace/empty. The field is of text value with both numbers and letters in the correct values. I want to remove all of the whitespace/empty and replace them with <Null> instead. I am trying to do this with the field calculator and python.

My current prelogic statement is:

def makeNull(unitType):
if unitType == str():
return None

And the box below is:

makeNull( !UnitType!)

However when the field is calculated it turns all of the values to <Null> instead of just the whitespace/empty. Any Idea what I am doing wrong?

Re: Remove Empty Spaces with Field Calculator

IanMurray — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 04:19:45 GMT

Maybe you only try evaluating empty strings.

def makeNull(unitType):
  if unitType == "":
    return None
  else:
    return unitType‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Re: Remove Empty Spaces with Field Calculator

DanPatterson_Retired — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 18:05:11 GMT

#---- snag the fat-fingered space placer ---
a = " "
a.strip() == ""
Out[9]: True‍‍‍‍

Re: Remove Empty Spaces with Field Calculator

NickArcher — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 18:12:52 GMT

So the problem was I didn't have a else statement. I added in your else statement and it worked. Thanks.