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Trying to figure out how to get this "Headwater" column to indicate "Yes" (or 1) if the value of "NextDown_Copy" is "" and "No" (or 0) if it has any other value (eg. 7100381010).

enter image description here

I attempted to try figuring out the Python code to do this using 1 and 0 coding (although I'd rather use Yes and No) (as illustrated below) but keep getting errors. I consulted a few other posts (another one), but still wasn't able to find the problem.

enter image description here

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  • 2
    Looks like you are missing the indentation in the Code box.
    – Sara Barnes
    Commented Feb 5, 2016 at 16:19
  • Sara Barnes, where should the indentation have been?
    – Dalal_EL_Hanna
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 0:17

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Here's a simple expression with no need to define a function in the codeblock:

Headwater =

0 if !NextDown_Copy! else 1

This checks if each value of NextDown_Copy is truthy (i.e. not a null, 0, empty string), and returns a 0 if so, otherwise it returns a 1.

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  • Thanks! This pretty much worked, although it returned 1s for Null values and left Null in all the rows for which NextDown_Copy had values. Any ideas why?
    – Dalal_EL_Hanna
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 0:11
  • That's very odd. What if you try 1 if !NextDown_Copy! is None else 0?
    – nmpeterson
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 0:17
  • Hum! Good idea. Unfortunately still didn't work!
    – Dalal_EL_Hanna
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 17:04
  • Is Headwater a text field? If so, try "0" if !NextDown_Copy! else "1"
    – nmpeterson
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 17:08
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    Works like a charm! Thanks. (Looks like today I was making a big mistake by not selecting Python while running the codes... I just realized this, which is likely what was causing the problem, sorry about this!)
    – Dalal_EL_Hanna
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 18:38
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Python uses None to denote null values. I'd replace your Null with None (no quotes or brackets)and see what you get. Your script is essentially looking for a text string value of null. Furthermore, it's not contained in single quotes, so you're throwing a syntax error twice over.

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  • Tried this out with no luck. But thanks, as its great to know that Python denotes nulls as None. I am totally unfamiliar with Python for the moment and was doing guess work, so indeed, I was trying to get it to search for a string value! Good to know I shouldn't have been doing that.
    – Dalal_EL_Hanna
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 0:16

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