Spatial Manager Desktop™ - FAQs: Data edition

Notes:

• Some components in the images on this page (providers, names, windows look, etc.) may be slightly different from those that will appear on your computer
• Some application functions need to access the Internet from the application itself. If you experiment problems in any process, ask your network administrator if there is a Proxy server installed on your network. You can configure the Proxy settings through the application options
• Some geographic data providers (Geocode, image Maps, etc.) may need a user account, which you can configure in the Service Provider API Keys settings through the application options

Introduction

• Objective of this section
  • To analyze the different methods of features data editing and deleting features from the Map

• Topics in this section
  • Direct editing on the data grid: changing values in the cells ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)
  • Finding and replacing: search term, Layer, field and options ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)
  • Calculate Field values by operating with another Field values and constants ("Professional" editions only)
  • Multiple edition: Layer, scope, field and new value ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)

How can I edit a value in a Table? ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)

You can edit a value in the Table of the selected Layer in Spatial Manager Desktop™ by double-clicking on the correspondent cell in the Data grid. Some considerations:

• You must enter a valid value according to the type of Field you are editing
• If the values are "greyed" in the Data grid this means the Layer is an "External layer" and its external source is a read-only source, so you cannot edit the values in the Table

Notes:

• You can also edit any data value in the "Properties" panel of the application
• The fields whose value starts with "http" are automatically converted into active links

Can I change the value of a Field in a Table for more than one Feature simultaneously? ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)

Yes, you can change the value of a Field in a Table for various Features simultaneously in Spatial Manager Desktop™, using the "Multiple edition" function in the "Start" ribbon. To do it, you must:

• Select the Layer and the Field to apply the edition
• Select if you want to apply the edition to all the Layer or only to the selected Features (if any)
• Type the new value for the selected Field

The above considerations about the type of Field and the type of source should also be noted here

Can I find (and replace) a value in a Table? ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)

Yes, you can find and, if you want, replace a value in a Table in Spatial Manager Desktop™, using the "Find and replace" function in the "Start" ribbon. To do it, you must:

• Key in the value to find (and replace)
• Key in the value to replace it with, if you want to replace values in the Table
• Select the Layer to perform this operation
• Select the Field to perform this operation, or "All" if you want to perform it over all the Fields in the selected Layer
• Choose the "Find" options
  • Match case (text Fields)
  • Match only whole word (text Fields)
  • Look in hidden columns (if any), as you can hide columns in the Data grid
• Select the operation to perform
  • Find the next cell
  • Replace in the current found cell
  • Replace in all the found cells

The above considerations about the type of Field and the type of source should also be noted here

You will see a summary of the "find and replace" operation when finished:

Is it possible to calculate field values based on values of other fields and/or constants? ("Professional" edition only)

Yes, the Fields Calculator function of Spatial Manager Desktop™ allows you to calculate simple or complex expressions using operators and functions that can be applied to field values in a table and/or to constant values

• Source: Select the Source Table in order to apply calculations on Field values from this Table
• Expression: In the writing panel of the Fields Calculator window you can create the expression that will be applied as a calculation to a Field of the same source Table or another Table (see below). For example, in the expression that you can see in the image below, a text value will be calculated resulting from concatenating the fixed text "Ratio=" with another text that is the result of converting into text the rounding with two decimal places of the division between the values of the fields 'Area' and 'Perim'
  • You can use the "Clear" button to leave the current expression blank, and the "Preview" button to preview the calculation results in tabular format
  • You can type the Operators and Functions and the source table Fields or constant values to which they apply and also select them through the sections to the left of the writing panel:
    • Field: To select any Field name defined in the Source Table
    • Values: To select any value from a selected Field in the Source Table (you will see all values list for the selected field), or some "special" fixed values, such as "NULL"
    • Operator: Arithmetic, logical, comparator or conditional Operators. Many of them can be applied to numeric values but also to text, dates, etc. For example, the "+" operator will return the sum of two numeric values, but it will also return the concatenation of two texts
    • Math: Mathematical functions such as logarithmic or trigonometric expressions, rounding, square roots, etc.
    • Text: Text functions, such as full or partial text replacement, convert numerical values to text, split texts, etc.
    • Date: Date functions, such as hourly, daily or monthly calculations, etc.
    • Geometry: Functions applicable to feature geometries, such as area calculations, elevations, etc. They will be applied to features attached to the Source Table
    • Advanced: Set of advanced functions not included in the previous sections, such as creating lists, returning values from one list based on the values of another list, etc.
• Save value in: You can set the Field where the above expression will be applied. This Field can be an existing or a new Field in the Source Table or in any other defined Table

• Notes:
  • When you pass over the Operators or Functions on the left side, you can see a small help of each of them as well as an example of use
  • Complex calculations are composed within parentheses and are processed from the inner parentheses to the outer parentheses. For example, in the expression that you can see in the above image, first the division between the values of the fields 'Area' and 'Perim' is calculated (/), then the rounding of the previous result to 2 decimal places is calculated (ROUND) and, finally, this result is converted into a text with the format type "0.00" (FORMAT), so that it can be concatenated to the fixed text "Ratio="
  • Fixed text values or parameters, such as the text 'Ratio=' or the '0.00' parameter of the FORMAT function in the above image, must be enclosed in single quotation marks
  • When you run the Fields Calculator function, the expression writing panel will display the last expression you entered during the current work session, if you had already used the function, so that you can correct any previous expression or base a new expression on the whole or part of the last expression used
  • You can get more help and info about the main available Operators and Functions through the following links:
    • Functions
    • Extensions

Related links

• Blog posts
  • Fields data calculator

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