only positive number expression label in arc map

Question

I was just wondering if anybody knows of a way to write an expression to make all my numeric values in my labels positive.

I want to do 1234 cal BC 23 cal AD for example, as a label.

My data is - 1234 (being BC) and 23 for AD.

any ideas?

Answer 1

On the 'Labels' page of the layer properties box (the one that opens when you double click a layer) you can use the Method drop down to define classes with different types of labels.

Then you can pick the features that have negative values and format their labels to be positive, then set up a second class to do the non-negative ones.

This tutorial is much more detailed and goes through the whole process of creating label classes.

Answer 2

Go to the Labels tab on Layer Properties, click Expression.... On the Label Expression dialog

1. check the Advanced checkbox
2. paste the code below into the Expression (update [DATE] to whatever your field name is)
3. set the Parser to python

.

def FindLabel ( [DATE] ):
  v = int([DATE])
  if v < 0:
    return "{} BC".format(abs(v))
  else:
    return [DATE] + " AD"

Then draw the Labels.