Bulk clearing or editing data from fields in attribute table in ArcGIS Online?

[Katie_Clark]

Hello,

I have a point feature layer published in ArcGIS Online that is used on a monthly basis by inspectors in the field. There are multiple fields in the attribute table that they fill out for each point, and then I generate reports based on that information. At the end of the month I clear out the fields so they can use the same pins the next month to generate reports. 

I know that you can go to the data tab of the feature layer and click on an attribute to edit or clear it.  However, I am having trouble finding a way to clear the entire column/field. It would also be useful to be able to set all of the features to have a set value, such as setting all of the features to have a value of "John Smith" for the "Inspector Name" field. Right now, the layer only has around 50 features so it is still manageable to edit them manually. However, I would love to know if this is possible for situations where I need to do this with much larger data sets. 

Is there a way to do this in ArcGIS Online? Maybe I'm just missing something obvious here, but it doesn't seem like you can do this with the Field Calculator tool.

Thanks for your help!

[MikeMinami]

It seems like the field calculator should be able to do what you want. It will calculate all records equal to a particular value.

thanks

Mike

[Katie_Clark]

Hi Mike,

That was what I thought, but when I open the field calculator, I only see this interface where it seems that I can only set the field equal to other fields. It doesn't let me simply put something like Inspection_Notes = "No notes at this time." to get that value for all of the features. 

What am I missing here?

[MikeMinami · Accepted solution]

Use single quotes to enter the string you want.

'No notes at this time.'

In general, you can use standard SQL Expressions.

[Katie_Clark]

Thanks Mike! I don't have much experience with SQL, so I appreciate the help.    How would I set the values to equal NULL with the field calculator interface?  I know it shouldn't be in quotes since it's not a string, but the expression [Inspections notes = NULL] did not work. 

It seems that in ArcMap you can use VB Script or Python when using the field calculator, but in ArcGIS Online it's only SQL? It would be super useful if they had the same functionalities/interface. Or is this not realistic?

[MikeMinami]

NULL should work. It worked for me.Are you writing the whole expression in the text box? The text box just contains the SQL you want to assign to the field, not the name of the field itself. Notice above the text box, in my case, it says

'intfield =' which is the name of the field I'm calculating.

[Katie_Clark]

I tried the same thing and it results in a "Sql expression syntax error." when I try to verify it. However, I am trying it on a string field - would that affect it? 

(btw, I checked and the field does allow null values) 

[MikeMinami]

I was able to assign a string field to NULL. I don't know why it's not working for you. How about calculating it to a single quoted string?