Make the acres or sq km field column display permanently?

Question

I have an interseting question for you. When I have a polygon and I calcuate acres or square kilometers. I know how to do this but every time I bring the polygon to ArcMap. I had to go to their column and set it up the numbers to display look like this 1594267 rather than 1,594,267 ? I know you can manually set up the column's properties and set it as thousand separators but Is there a way around to make it permanently ?

I have screen shot that you can check this out here.

There are two files before and after.

Thanks

Answer 1

If it is a one-time thing and just for display purposes, you could always consider calculating the numeric values into a string field and using the following VBA syntax to permanently format the string:

Format( [fieldname] , "#,###.##")

Just paste this code into ArcMap's field calculator and replace the fieldname.

Answer 2

If the data is in shape file
There is not a lot you can do to force this.
Other than to create an lyr file and use the lyr file to insert the data into your projects.
If I understand correct what you are asking.

Answer 3

If I'm understanding the question correctly and there is not an OOTB (Out Of The Box) solution to this, then it looks like it would be possible to use a python script to calcuate the "non-comma'd" field into a "comma'd" string field. Just link a custom button as an add-in to call your script and it'll be as simple as clicking that little button, and BOOM! Magic! A new field with commas!

Answer 4

You could write a few lines in Python and paste into the python box each time. Or make into a toolbox. You could also just run this script on all your shapefiles once a day.