topic Re: Convert DateTime field to Date in Label Expression in Mapping Questions

Convert DateTime field to Date in Label Expression

mpboyle — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:32:51 GMT

I have a DateTime field (ex: CreatedDate) and would like to only show the date with the label. How would I setup the label expression to do this using python?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Convert DateTime field to Date in Label Expression

Marco_AlejandroBonilla — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 19:49:52 GMT

It seems there is no idea how to do that:

ArcGIS Idea - More and Better Examples of Label Expressions Using Python in ArcGIS

Re: Convert DateTime field to Date in Label Expression

mpboyle — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 20:32:31 GMT

Hmmm...I tried for way too long to use python. Switched to VBScript parser and got what I wanted in a few minutes using FormatDateTime([field],2)...like what is shown in the idea above.

Thanks for the response!

Re: Convert DateTime field to Date in Label Expression

MarkCederholm — Thu, 28 May 2015 18:41:29 GMT

You cannot use VBScript expressions if you are publishing to ArcGIS Server. I ran into this problem, and the key to understanding it is found in the first sentence of the third paragraph of the "Building label expressions" help topic:

"Field values are automatically cast to text strings."

Nonetheless, Python expressions are awkward for parsing strings because you can't use square brackets . For example, in the following expression:

[DATEFIELD].split(" ")[0]

the parser will look for a field called "0" and fail. Instead, you can use the following:

[DATEFIELD].split(" ").pop(0)

If a field is nullable, then you need to be prepared to handle a null value:

def FindLabel ([DATEFIELD]):

s = [DATEFIELD]

if s is None:

return None

return s.split(" ").pop(0)

Of course, label performance is adversely affected by using a function, which in turn affects the return time on an ArcGIS Server map service.

[BTW, if you look at the examples, the most appropriate ones for parsing strings are in JScript, and that is probably the better route to take.]

Re: Convert DateTime field to Date in Label Expression

WesMiller — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 20:31:02 GMT

This article ArcGIS Desktop explains date fields it may help. I was able to use below to pull the date.

def FindLabel ( [LASTUPDATE] ):
  d = [LASTUPDATE] 
  a = d.split(" ")
  return a[0]