tut Pro Arcade Labels

Using Arcade for Custom Labels

(return to the ArcGIS PRO / Cartography Tutorials page)

See also Arcade for Custom Pop-Ups

 

Arcade is an Expression language developed by ESRI for use with ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online and spatial data sets. Arcade includes a collection of 'functions' that can be used to modify values, including values from attribute fields.

In addition to symbology, pop-ups, etc. Arcade can be used for customizing Labels. (Note that all of the examples below use the Arcade expression language. ArcGIS Pro can also use VBscript, Javascript, or Python for similar functions, using different syntax).

 

Perhaps the most basic use of Arcade is to display labels based on the value of a field in the attribute table, in this case using the NAME field from a polygon layer of Washington State Counties using basic census data.

Arcade label using Name field

Numerical fields can also be used for labels - below is an example using a Square Miles (SQMI) field:

Arcade label using Sq. Miles field

 

Changing Case

Arcade includes functions for changing the case (UPPER CASE vs lower case vs Proper Case) of a text string.

Below is an example using the upper( ) function to convert the text from the NAME field to upper case:

Arcade label using Upper Case

You can also use the lower( ) function or the proper( ) function.

 

Concatenating Text Strings

You can concatenate multiple fields using the + operator. You can also use the + operator to append a text string to a field value:

Arcade label using Concatenate

Use <field1>  +  "  "  +  <field2> to insert a space between the values from two fields.

 

Insert a Carriage Return (Line Feed)

To insert a carriage return between two text strings use the + operator and the textFormatting.NewLine function:

Arcade label with Carriage Return

Below is an example of inserting a carriage return and the 2000 Population (POP2000) field:

Arcade label with Carriage Returns

 

Formatting Numbers as Text

Numerical fields can be converted to text and then formatted (i.e., including commas or a specified number of decimal places) using the text( ) function:

Arcade label using Numerical Text Formatting

Numbers can also be rounded off, averaged, etc.

 

Mathematical Calculations

Standard mathematical calculations can be performed on numerical fields. This can be used to add or multiple fields, to convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius or from Miles to Kilometers, etc.

Below is an example converting square miles (from the SQMI field) to acres:

Arcade Label Acres

And since the derived output (square miles * 640) is a number, we can format that as well:

Arcade Label with Formatted Acres

In addition, we can concatenate additional fields and text strings and carriage returns...:

Arcade Label Formatted Acres with Carriage Return

 

Geometry Functions

Arcade can also be used to obtain geometric information for a feature (i.e., information not contained in the attribute table). 

For example, you can use the Area( ) function to obtain the area of a polygon (in the units you specify.

Or you can use the Centroid( ) function to return a point location for the centroid of a polygon.

And the Geometry( ) function can be used to obtain the X or Y coordinates of a point.

There are also functions to identify features based on proximity: Contains( ), Overlaps( ), etc.

 

More Examples

Below is a short list of some of the more commonly used Arcade functions:

Text (Case):

  • Proper case                proper($feature.FIELD)
  • Lower case                 lower($feature.FIELD)
  • Upper case                 upper($feature.FIELD)

Concatenation

  • Add text                       $feature.FIELDname + “ some new text…”
        Or                            “Some text and: “ + $feature.Field
  • Add a field                   $feature.FIELD1 + $feature.FIELD2
  • Add a space                $feature.FIELD1 + “ “ + $feature.FIELD2
  • Add a new line            $feature.FIELD1 + TextFormatting.NewLine + $feature.FIELD2

Numbers / Math

  • Add a comma             Text($feature.NumberFIELD, “#,###”)
  • Add a constant           $feature.NumberFIELD + 10
  • Divide by a constant  $feature. NumberFIELD / 10
  • Add two fields             $feature. NumberFIELD1 + $feature.NumberFIELD2
  • Round off to integer   round(number($feature.NumberFIELD), 0)  
       To 2 decimals          round(number($feature.NumberFIELD), 2)
  • Currency                    “$" + round($feature.NumberFIELD, 2)
       Or                             "$" + text($feature.NumberFIELD,"#,###.##")

Conditional

  • If statement                 if ($feature.FIELD1 > 600) {return $feature.FIELD2}

Text Formatting

  • Bold                            "<BOL>" + "Some Text" + "</BOL>"  
       Or                            "<BOL>" + $feature.FIELD + "</BOL>" + " Some Text"
  • Italic                            "<ITA>" + $feature.FIELD + "</ITA>" + " Some Text"
  • Underline                    "<UND>" + $feature.FIELD + "</UND>" + " Some Text"
  • Underline                    "Some Text”>" + “<SUP>” + $feature.FIELD + "</SUP>"
  • Font Size                    "<FNT size= ‘8’>" + $feature.FIELD1 + "</FNT>" + $feature.FIELD2
  • Font Name                 "<FNT name= ‘Arial’>" + $feature.FIELD1 + "</FNT>" + $feature.FIELD2
  • Font Color                  "<CLR yellow= ‘100’>" + $feature.FIELD1 + "</CLR>" + $feature.FIELD2
  • Background               "<BGD yellow= ‘100’>" + $feature.FIELD1 + "</BGD>" + $feature.FIELD2

 

See also: