UpdateCursor to insert DDM values from a layer in WGS84?

Question

I have a layer in WGS84 (Geographic, DD) that I need to label in DDM (Degrees Decimal Minutes).

I need to calculate within an arcpy UpDateCursor, a label field with DDM in it.

I saw that you can run the Convert Coordinate Notation, but I need to be able to calculate these labels on the fly within my cursor (this script is also moving points around).

After trapsing through the Esri forums I have not seen any snippets with how to achieve this.

This is likely a noob question, but this is very early steps for me any arcpy.

Answer 1

Assuming your points are in DD:

import math

def dd_to_ddm(val):
    minutes, degrees = math.modf(val)
    minutes = abs(minutes) * 60
        return "%i° %f'" % (degrees, minutes)