Allow Default Value to be blank

JustinSmith6

There should be an option in geodatabases to set the default value to blank. In many cases I do not want to see <NULL> where there is no value. ESRI’s recommended workaround is to select all the <NULL> values and use the field calculator to make the selected values blank with “”. I must now include this workaround into my workflows in order to have a blank record.

Below is an image of road labels. The label is concatenated with prefix direction, street name, street suffix, and postfix directional. There are no values for prefix direction and postfix directional in the two road labels, so ArcGIS labels them with null by default.

I can set the default value to be anything, but not blank. It should take less work to have a record be blank, not more.

RobertKlein3 · ‎06-07-2013

Agreed. Additionally there should be a more intelligent way to concatenate for labeling expressions, with conditional behavior based on whether a prefix direction field, e.g. is NULL.

SSWoodward · ‎10-20-2022

This idea has been closed as a duplicate of the Data Management Idea linked below. Don't worry, you can still show your support by commenting and adding kudos to the open idea. Thanks for your contributions!

https://community.esri.com/t5/data-management-ideas/allow-default-value-to-be-blank/idi-p/922935