topic Update a field based on date in Python Questions

Update a field based on date

DamonOsbourne — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 18:46:10 GMT

How can I update a field based on if the date in another field has passed or not? In other words, which arcpy function or method can be used that will change an attribute from "current" to "expired" when the date in the date field associated with that feature has passed? The goal is to have a tool/button that updates the features based on date and then exports to pdf.

Re: Update a field based on date

markdenil — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:05:02 GMT

There are a few different ways to get the current date and time from the system using Python.
for example...
>>> import datetime
>>> datetime.datetime.now()
datetime.datetime(2013, 6, 10, 7, 59, 43, 458000)
>>>

This returns a datetime object
Your date field value can be retrived and compared to the now object.
The later date / time value will be greater

If your date fields are strings, you can turn them into datetaime objects using
datetime.strptime(date_string, format)
The python standard library has a list of the format tags.

Re: Update a field based on date

RhettZufelt — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:21:12 GMT

If you are trying to update the field on the currently selected feature(s), then CalculateField_management would do it.

If itering through all the features in your FC, might iterate through with UpdateCursor, if date &LT current date, then update field.

R_