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I am trying to do a simple concatenation using the ArcGIS 10.2 field calculator with Python code. I have a field of census tracts numbers (tract). I want to concatenate this with the numeric codes for the state and county so that I can join this table to the spatial geometry. The new field is defined as 'text'.

My code is "06085" + "!tract!" This yields the correct concatenation PLUS .0 on each record. So 0608512345.0

I have also tried str(06085)+str(!tract!) which yields the same results. What am I missing?

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  • + str(int(!tract!)) Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 19:01
  • @FelixIP, she would lose the leading zeros....I think there can be leading zeros on the tract number itself. Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 19:02
  • @Tom I see no mentioning of leading zeros, and if there are leading zeros on a tract, it makes it either non-numeric or decimal <1 Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 19:04
  • @FelixIP, she didn't explicitly mention it, but the state FIPS code in her example has it, which suggests that the tract numbers might as well--and the fact that she says it's for census tracts, which can have leading zeros: census.gov/geo/reference/gtc/gtc_ct.html. However, you're right, that her field type must already be numeric...which could point to a other problems. Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 19:07

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So, you don't want the .0?

Then, you should use:

"06085{}".format( !Tract! ).split('.')[0]
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  • Brilliant! This worked :-) Thank you! The US Census state FIPS codes do indeed have a leading zero which makes it much more difficult. Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 20:28
  • Can you help me understand the Python: why do the string commands format() or str() add a .0 on the end of numeric text? Is there a way to avoid this so I don't have to use the .split() ? Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 20:29
  • @AllisonMeezan, it must be that the "Tract" field is set to store floats or doubles. Because of that, Python is reading them with a decimal. But this also means that a simpler version should work: '06085{}'.format(str(!Tract!)) Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 20:45
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Try "06085{}.0".format( !Tract! )

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This yields the desired text output:

enter image description here

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  • I don't think that yields the desired output. As far as I can tell, the whole point of the question was to get rid of the decimal--not to explicitly add it. Though the original question wasn't totally clear. Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 22:46
  • Yes, I realised that might be the case after I read your answer. But I agree the question isn't clear Commented Mar 1, 2016 at 22:48

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