Using file geodatabase with HTML in attribute column?

Question

I am working with a file geodatabase (.gdb) where one of the attribute columns contains html code:

Screenshot of Attribute Table in ArcGIS

My issue is that the attributes that I need are embedded in the html code. The screenshot below shows a "Prj_type" field with a value of "Sediment Diversion" for the highlighted feature. I need a "Prj_Type" column that would have a value of "Sediment Diversion" for this feature:

Screenshot of Attribute Table after Exported to Excel

(The attribute table viewer in ArcGIS only shows the first line, so I exported the table to Excel to see the full html code.)

Is there a way to parse the html in this attribute column to create new columns based of the fields and values in the html?

• PolyGeo: I would use ArcPy cursors to do this.
• Ezra Boyd: Thank you. I've never used ArcPy and have limited experience with python. How would this approach work?
• PolyGeo: See if you can use a SearchCursor to print your data first, then move to using an UpdateCursor and Python string manipulation to strip out the bits you need and write them to another field.

Answer 1

If you're not comfortable in Python but love Excel, you could export out that field and an id field you could join with later. Then in Excel, find/replace, Mid, Left, Right functions to rip it apart and place it in new correct fields, then join back to your featureclass and drop the html field.