topic Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string in Python Questions

Replace empty cells with text in a text string

TheodoreF — Thu, 31 May 2018 11:25:23 GMT

I can't find the answer anywhere, but how can I replace cells in a string field that have no data at all in them, with text? I'm not looking to replace spaces.

The second row here in Claim_Spend_in_£ (which is a text tield), has no data at all in it. It is not a blank space, or a NULL. I want all blank entries to be replaced with the text "Unrecorded". But the code I used above does nothing... I've tried using "", " ", None and neither of those work. I've also tried .strip to strip the field of any spaces first before running replace. No difference.

How can I acheive this?

And for further help, how can I replace all <Null> entries in a DATE formatted field, with the date "11/11/1111"? (Essentially I can't have any null values, so any unrecorded dates have to be a made up filler of 11/11/1111...

I see there is no .replace function for non-string fields...

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 31 May 2018 13:30:19 GMT

Try this... assuming it is some variant of a space or whitespace this field calculator expression should work

or it that fails you might try a variant

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

DanPatterson_Retired — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 20:39:29 GMT

As for the <null>, simply do a query for null to get them selected, then when you use the Field calculator, you just enter your value for the field calculation. If it is an actual date field, I am not sure you just put in your 11/11/1111 string, but report back if you have an issue

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

TheodoreF — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 12:45:52 GMT

The first solution gave ERROR 999999:

and the second solution did the same:

Thanks for the help though! I'm going to try selecting all blank entries and then insert "Unrecorded" into those selected.

EDIT: that won't work as I need this process to run outside of an ArcGIS Pro session. Select by attribute works off ToC layers...

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

TheodoreF — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 13:05:59 GMT

Ok interestingly my original code works with a few minor tweaks- swapping " " for ' '

hmmmm...

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

JoshuaBixby — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 13:20:55 GMT

The single quote issue is likely related to SQL reference for query expressions used in ArcGIS—ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Desktop :

Common queries: Searching strings
Strings must always be enclosed in single quotation marks in queries, for example:
STATE_NAME = 'California'

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 20:29:20 GMT

You indented the return line.

Don't

see my example

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

DanPatterson_Retired — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 20:37:26 GMT

'return' should use a single indent, you have double indented, hence it will fail

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

TheodoreF — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 12:25:11 GMT

Thanks Dan, both your solutions worked perfectly with the single indent. Interestingly when typing out your script it defautled to double indent when I hit Enter after the line ending "Unrecorded". I assumed Pro would handle indents for me.

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

TheodoreF — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 14:15:36 GMT

To answer the second part of my question relating to replacing all NULL values in a date field, with the made up date of '11/11/1111', this solution works well:

Re: Replace empty cells with text in a text string

JDM_82 — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:54:33 GMT

This is what I needed to remember. Thank you!