Field Calculation Question

[RyanHinesley]

I have a name field attributed with a string that has a hyphen in the middle...

'text1... - text2...'

I want to use the field calculator to calculate another field based on everything to the right of the hyphen, excluding the hyphen and everything to the left so the result will look like this...

'text2...'

Note that the number of characters for text1 and text2 is variable throughout the feature class so the RIGHT and LEFT functions will not work. Any ideas without having to revert to a python script?

[AnthonyGiles · Accepted solution]

Ryan,

Use an expression in the calculate field similar to :

Left of -

left([fieldname],instr([fieldname],"-")-1)

Right of -

Mid([fieldname],instr([fieldname],"-"),len([fieldname] - instr([fieldname],"-")

Or

Right([fieldname],len([fieldname] - instr([fieldname],"-"))


the instr function gives the position of a text string within another, and the left function extracts a string from another one, as does mid & right

Regards

Anthony

[RyanHinesley]

Worked perfectly. Thanks so much.

Ryan

[AnthonyGiles]

Ryan,

Glad it worked, please don't forget to mark the post as answered,

Regards

Anthony

[StewartGalloway]

Anthony,

Can a version of your code help me to switch names within a field?  From "Smith, John" to "John Smith".

thanks.

Stew

[DanPatterson_Retired]

" ".join(a.split(", ").__reversed__())

where 'a' can be substituted with !YourFieldName!

use the python parser of course.

[StewartGalloway]

wow, thanks Dan.