Changing Date Format via Field Calculator of ArcMap?

Question

I'm trying to find a function in the Field Calculator (preferably in VB Script) that can add numbers into a field that already has data.

I have year data ranging from the 1960s to 2014 in string format, and the only data I currently have in my field is the last two digits for each year (i.e. 60, 71, 75, 00, etc. which represents 1960, 1971, 1975, 2000).

Is there a way I can add the 19 and 20 to the correct years using the Field Calculator for the entire field?

I apologize if this is a repeat question, but I'm new to the site and couldn't find any answers.

Answer 1

I'm not sure how to do this is VB Script, but I do in python. In the field calculator, set your Parser to Python. Click the Show Codeblock box. In the input box (where you see fieldname = above), type in getYear (!fieldname!), where fieldname is the name of the field with the years.

The code block code depends on if your field is a string or a number type (int, float, etc). If it's number, this will work for you:

def getYear (val):
    if val == None:
        return
    if val > 15:
        return val + 1900
    else:
        return val + 2000

If your field is a string/text type, go with this:

def getYear (val):
   if val == None:
       return
   year = int (val)
   if year > 15:
       return str(year + 1900)
   else:
       return str(year + 2000)