How to combine If Then with InStr in ArcMap field calculator?

Question

I want to write an if then in field calculator that tests if a field in the attribute table contains one of several versions of another string (the versions vary by capitalization).

Trouble is, I can't get even a simple if then to work, let alone an if then else if, which i would need here. I'm getting a 9999 error when I try the following:

(in the pre-logic script code)

Dim onlorain as Long
If InStr( [Export_Output.std],"Lorain" )>0 Then
onlorain = 1
else onlorain = 0
end if

(in the variable = ('parcel.onlorain =') box)

onlorain

I've posted a screenshot here:

screenshot

I'd thought that ultimately, I'd be striving (when I build in the capitalization variants) for something like

Dim onlorain as Long
If InStr( [Export_Output.std],"Lorain" )>0 Then
onlorain = 1
elseif InStr( [Export_Output.std],"LORAIN" )>0 tHEN
onlorain = 1
elseif InStr( [Export_Output.std],"lorain" )>0 tHEN
onlorain = 1
else
onlorain = 0
end if

But if the 'simple', 1st version of this won't work, this won't work either.

Hope someone has thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Here's a solution that should work. It also uses the UCase function that will convert your text to uppercase, so you don't have to check for all variants

dim output
if InStr(UCase( [Export_Output.std]), "LORAIN") > 0 then
 output = 1
else
 output = 0
end if

You'll also put "output" into the lower box

EDIT

Here's another test using joined data like in your original case.

enter image description here

• dubhousing: Hmm ... tried this version, and in this case, the geoprocessing doesn't fail, but it doesn't seem to assign values correctly; none of the records that should take a '1' are receiving them.
• kenbuja: Can you show a screen shot of the attribute table?
• dubhousing: Sure! It's here: i.imgur.com/GkR6W.png Thanks for your help!
• kenbuja: I've run it again using joined data like you have and it still runs properly. See the above image