topic Re: Dynamic date for yesterday in Mapping Questions

Dynamic date for yesterday

MarkPratt — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 06:10:25 GMT

I am producing some maps and I want the date on the map to be yesterdays date, as the data on the map relates to yesterdays progress.

I can only find in the dynamic date help section how to show this with today's date, when I want today-1.

Any ideas?

Mark Pratt

Western Geco

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 06:59:08 GMT

Short of editing the date prior to printing, there is no option as you have discovered, so editing prior to printing or using a text element and editing it, seem to be the only option

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

JonMorris2 — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 12:27:36 GMT

Getting yesterday's date is fairly straightforward using python - the datetime module has everything you need.

For example:

from datetime import date, timedelta                       

date.strftime(date.today() - timedelta(days=1), '%d/%m/%Y')

The question is, can you set dynamic text using Arcpy? I'm not sure, but example 2 here seems to sugggest that you can.

Example url: http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/desktop/latest/analyze/arcpy-mapping/textelement-class.htm

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

MarkPratt — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 13:21:50 GMT

John

The link to your example doesn't seem to work for me.

It gives me an unexpected error!

Mark

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

JonMorris2 — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 14:03:05 GMT

That's weird - Geonet seems to be doing something bad to the link. I tried editing my post but it still didn't work. Try copying the text and pasting it into a new tab.

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 14:09:14 GMT

It is a link to dynamic text, which is what I was suggesting. If you go into advanced editor, then select the html from the edit line, you can copy and paste the link into your browser.

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

MarkPratt — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 08:32:17 GMT

Jon

I have got to the link eventually, but I'm not familiar with Arcpy.

So how would I implement this?

Regards

Mark

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

WesMiller — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 12:27:39 GMT

Create a text element in your layout with the "Element Name" = DateTimeElm

Then open python inside arcpmap by clicking on the python tool on your standard tools tool bar. Copy and paste the code below into the python interpreter and click enter twice.

code

from datetime import date, timedelta 
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument("CURRENT")
#Where my code says "DateTimeElm" your text element needs to be named the same or change this name to reflect your text element
elm = arcpy.mapping.ListLayoutElements(mxd, "TEXT_ELEMENT", "DateTimeElm")[0]
elm.text = date.strftime(date.today() - timedelta(days=1), '%m/%d/%Y')
arcpy.RefreshActiveView()

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

MarkPratt — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 07:34:19 GMT

Wes,

This is great, but is this really any quicker than changing the date in the text element manually each time?

Is there a way of applying this code automatically whenever I open my maps, or can a script be written to update the date on all the maps (5) that I produce on a daily basis, in one operation before opening them?

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

WesMiller — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 15:23:14 GMT

Save the code as a python script example "somemeaningfulName.py" then follow these instructions Adding a script tool—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop it will only work if you have the correctly named text element in your layout.

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

LukeSturtevant — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 12:27:42 GMT

Are you using data driven pages? If you are then you can use Wes Miller's code in a display expression for your data driven page layer like so:

def FindLabel ( ):
    from datetime import date, timedelta
    return date.strftime(date.today() - timedelta(days=1), '%m/%d/%Y')

Then in your dynamic text element you would use this:

This works for me and should update automatically for all your maps since it uses the current date code.

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

MarkPratt — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:03:40 GMT

Luke

Sad to say that they are not data driven pages but separate MXD files.

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

WesMiller — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:16:08 GMT

Luke, the code was from Jon Morris

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

LukeSturtevant — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:18:58 GMT

Well you could still set up data drive pages especially if your maps are all consistent and using an index polygon layer for paneling such as a town boundary polygon. You could also set up a fishnet of your map area to create a panel scheme. But if you already have it up and running with the text element and python script tool you might as well stick with that.

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

LukeSturtevant — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:20:32 GMT

Oops thanks for the correction Wes. Indeed, credit goes to Jon Morris for the code.

Re: Dynamic date for yesterday

JonMorris2 — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:23:35 GMT

Thanks! I didn't know much about text elements, so I've learned something here too 🙂