Parsing field values using ArcGIS Field Calculator?

Question

I am using 10.0 ArcView and am trying to get the "R" in R12345678910 to drop.

The numbers are in a column in the attribute table and i've always used VB scripting.

I was using Field Calculator.

• Baltok: Where is this R12345678910 at? A field value in an attribute table? In the middle of a script? Field Calculator? Do you want a Python only solution? Some more details may yield more answers.
• Baltok: Do all the values in your field have the same number of characters and/or number values? Also, do all the values begin with R?
• Zoran: yes on both. R3415160838 is an example, same number of characters and the "R" in front of all.

Answer 1

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 >>>'R12345678910'[1:]
 '12345678910'

Appending [1:] to a string in python will remove the initial character. Look up slice in the python help.

To use this in the ArcGIS field calculator, you will need to turn on Python parsing

for the unitCode = enter

!your_field_name![1:]

• Zoran: [1: ] did not work - "there was a failure during processing, check the geoprocessing results window for details"

Answer 2

VBScript Example:

Right( [FieldName], 11 )

This code will take the 11 characters from the right, and anything left of those 11 characters is omitted.

Python Example:

!FieldName!.lstrip('R')

This code takes a string and removes R from the left/front of it.

Both of these examples should get rid of the R in your strings.

Edit: Regan Sarwas' updated answer works great and is actually more versatile because it can handle more cases.