topic Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields, in Python Questions

How to rearrange one field into two fields,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 09:15:43 GMT

I wonder if there is a way to rearrange one field into two fields instead of doing it manually, as shown in the attached,

Any ideas,

Best,

Majdoleen

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

DanPatterson_Retired — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 09:38:24 GMT

Open your table and add two fields and add 2 text (string) fields if you already haven't done so.

You python's 'split' function to cut the field into 2 based upon a common factor... that you have a ':' in the same place

We will denote your field as variable f.

Make the first field you want to add data to and we will get the 'Townhall' part of the string into it

Select the python parser, double click on your field name containing the original data and then append ' .split(":")[0] to the fields name so your expression should look like

"your original field".split(":")[0]

hit enter and the results should be there. repeat on the 2nd field using

"your original field".split(":")[1]

and you should have the facility types.

In pure python with a field named 'f' this would look like this

>>> f = "Townhall:Municipal Building"

>>>

>>> a = f.split(":")[0]

>>> b = f.split(":")[1]

>>> a

'Townhall'

>>> b

'Municipal Building'

>>>

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 09:57:39 GMT

Thank you Dan, but do I have to do this for all the values, we are talking about more than 6000 values!!, if it is possible, could you please send me more details using screen shots ,

Best,

Majdoleen

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

DanPatterson_Retired — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 10:19:17 GMT

It does it for the whole field at once in the Field Calculator have a read through the section...it is much like a spreadsheet

make the field active that you want the results to go into
specify your formula in the field calculator
hit enter and the results are copies down
repeat as needed

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 10:36:52 GMT

Thank you Dan, It is working but the challenge here that I have to type the field name 6000 times, each field has different value.

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

DanPatterson_Retired — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 12:16:46 GMT

you only have to do it once if the separator is a " : " , in the field calculator, read the link I sent

If you have thousands of different field names ... not different rows... then you need to script it... but you have not provided any information as to were these fields reside how one can generalize the field names etc etc. In any event, what I sent is how you do it simply to calculate valeus for a field given the structure in the field that you provided. You will have to provide more information or you will be left doing it 6000 times.

The principle would also appy to fields but you would need to examine the arcpy methods, ListFeatureClasses, ListFields, AddField and arcpy.da cursors section of the help files in the arcpy section

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

JayantaPoddar — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 18:57:21 GMT

Hi Majdoleen,

As I can see from the snapshot, you have 6107 records (not fields). So the expressions given by Dan Patterson should work for all the records at one go.

Taking your data into consideration, let me put down the expressions once again.

Make sure none of the records are selected.

My Assumption: You are spliting the text with ":" (colon) separator.

Use Field Calculator for FacilityDescription_English

Parser: Python

Expression=

!Facility_English!.split(":")[0]

Use Field Calculator for FacilityName_English

Parser: Python

Expression=

!Facility_English!.split(":")[1]

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 07:44:54 GMT

Thank you Dan Patterson and Jayanta Poddar ,really appreciate , it is working perfect with first expression but with the second one it fails, I couldn't figure out why it fails, and gave the error bellow.

Best,

Majdoleen

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

JayantaPoddar — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 08:31:09 GMT

What is the length of the text field "FacilityName_English"? Add a text field with a length long enough to contain the longest split string.

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 08:50:23 GMT

Hi Jayanta,

both have the same length= 50

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 09:11:26 GMT

Just add a field with a width wider than you need, the extra space is inconsequential in terms of file size. So create the 2 text fields as I suggest and use the field calculation method I suggested earlier. I would use Python particularly if you have no background in programming since it is the language that will be supported and VB is/will become a legacy language.

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 09:29:05 GMT

Thank you Dan, I tried using 200 field length and didn't work, sorry but I don't have any experience in writing the codes, I tried yours but didn't work too

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

JayantaPoddar — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 09:32:40 GMT

What is the length of "Facility_English"?

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 09:36:05 GMT

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

JayantaPoddar — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 09:38:15 GMT

What version is the python? You can try installing the python that comes with your arcgis desktop.

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

MajdoleenO_A__Awadallah — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 09:57:11 GMT

one thing, it is working good with facilityDescription_English ( !Facility_English!.split(":")[0]) but it fails to wirk with FacilityName_English (!Facility_English!.split(":")[1]) so I am not sure that the problem with the version,

I am using ArcGis 10.2.2

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

JayantaPoddar — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 10:12:15 GMT

Does all the values in field "Facility_English" contain a ":" (colon)?

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

JayantaPoddar — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 10:56:27 GMT

Majdoleen,

I could reproduce the error by replacing ":" in few values with other characters.

!Facility_English!.split(":")[0] works OK but !Facility_English!.split(":")[1] is giving error.

From the error snapshot, one can see a value (u"Parking") which doesn't have a colon sign, thus no value after a colon. Similar values will induce errors. Please use the split command with appropriate separator values for the selective records.

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 11:30:50 GMT

It is the separator as I indicated in my earlier response

you only have to do it once if the separator is a " : " , in the field calculator, read the link I sent

If the separator is different then replace the ":" with a suitable replacement. If there is no separator, then you will have to come up with your own rule.

From the help on string.split

Help on function split in module string:

split(s, sep=None, maxsplit=-1)
split(s [,sep [,maxsplit]]) -> list of strings

Return a list of the words in the string s, using sep as the

delimiter string. If maxsplit is given, splits at no more than

maxsplit places (resulting in at most maxsplit+1 words). If sep

is not specified or is None, any whitespace string is a separator.

If you have multiple delimiters then you will have to use the regular expression module ... re ..

as in

import re re.split('; |, ',str)

See this thread on Stack Overflow

Python: Split string with multiple delimiters - Stack Overflow

Re: How to rearrange one field into two fields,

SepheFox — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 16:58:18 GMT

Yes, the problem is that there are some values that don't follow the same pattern. That is, as in the value "Parking", there is at least one values that doesn't contain a colon, and then a facility name. You could exclude these values by selecting by attributes, and then double clicking the original field name and inserting LIKE '%:%' after the field name in the expression window. This will select only the features that include the colon. Then go ahead and run the calculate field script. After that you can switch the selection, and calculate the remaining features, or edit them manually.