Using ArcGIS Field Calculator to populate number field from text field?

Question

I'm trying to assign speed values to street types using TIGER street shapefiles. So I created the new field for the speed, and I was going to use the field calculator to take the MTFCC classifications and fill the speed field from that, using a simple replace script.

I have this simple script that I found from another question that someone asked. I plugged my fields and values in and repeated the replace.

def Calc(value):
if "S110" in value:
    return value.replace('S1100','65')
if "S1200" in value:
    return value.replace('S1200','45')
if "1400" in value:
    return value.replace('S1400','30')
if "S1500" in value:
    return value.replace('S1500','15')
if "S1630" in value:
    return value.replace('S1630','25')
if "S1640" in value:
    return value.replace('S1640','25')

However, when I run it, it seems to run fine, but my fields are still Null. I really have no experience with Python, so I'm not even sure where I'm going wrong with the script.

Answer 1

You are almost there. What you are trying to do is:

Codeblock:

def calc_speed(field_value):
  if field_value == 'S1100':
    return 65
  if field_value == 'S1200':
    return 45

Speed field

Speed = 
calc_speed(!MTFCC!)

You have to evaluate the value of MTFCC field and then make decision based on that.

Imho a more elegant solution is to use a Python dictionary. Less repetitive code and also easy to expand in case you get more class values.

Codeblock:

d = {'S1100':65,'S1200':45,'S1400':30}

def calc_speed(field_value):
  if field_value in d.keys():
    return d[field_value]

Speed field

Speed = 
calc_speed(!MTFCC!)