topic Re: Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text in Python Questions

Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text

TheoFaull — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 13:12:38 GMT

Hi. I have a column in a large attribute table. The values in this column are text.

Example entries in this case would be:

Bas

Pega

How can I add the word 'Log' to the end of each entry so it'd look like:

BasLog

RhLog

PegaLog

I don't want to use the technique or sorting them, then selecting them, then using field calculator to define them. I just want to know how to add text onto existing text, no matter what the existing text is.

thanks

Re: Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text

TimWitt2 — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 13:25:54 GMT

Theo,

open the field calculator, right click the field you would like to add text and click "Field Calculator". Lets call this field FIELD.

then type the following in your field calculator:

[FIELD] + "Log"

That should do it.

Tim

Re: Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text

AndyOmmen — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 13:47:58 GMT

Hi Theo,

The Field Calculator is the way to do this but you will need to check the code block option and input a rather simple function. Below I've provided steps using Python which I'm more familiar with:

Open the attribute table and right click on column you need to update
Select Field Calculator (You can run this outside an edit session but will not be able to undo the update)
Select the Python parser option
For Type, select String
Check Show Codeblock
In the Pre-logic Script Code text box, build a function similar to the one below:
1. def replaceStr(string):
2. newString = string.replace(string, string + "LOG")
3. return newString
In field text box, call the function you created in the Pre-logic Script Code text box, but pass in your actual column name (i.e. replaceStr(!FIELD_NAME!)
Click OK

When defining the function, be sure to use two spaces for each subsequent line under the function definition line (def replaceStr(string):) otherwise an error will be returned. The .replace() is the method used to append additional text to your input string field. I hope this helps and isn't too long winded for you .

Andy

Re: Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text

TheoFaull — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 13:50:45 GMT

thanks guys, i will try both techniques and report back!

EDIT: ok so I found Tim's solution was easiest and it worked fine for me. Although I didn't try Andy's, thanks anyway!

Re: Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text

TimWitt2 — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 15:49:37 GMT

Glad it worked!

Re: Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text

DanPatterson_Retired — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 16:14:54 GMT

To follow on from Tim's ... for Pythonista's and those moving on to Arc* 10.3

Python parser

!FieldnameHere! + "log" # python uses ! to surround fields instead of [ ... ]

Re: Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text

JaredPilbeam2 — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 15:49:30 GMT

I'm using ArcGIS Pro 2.6. I want to add some text to an existing field. The following verifies as valid but throws an error:

Re: Help with field calculator. Adding text to end of existing text

JaredPilbeam2 — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 16:17:27 GMT

https://community.esri.com/thread/231617-string-or-binary-data-would-be-truncated-error

I looked up the error. I guess the field length in my case was too short (255 length). I tried this same expression on a field with a length of 1600 and it was successful.