Mapping and visualization > Animation > Building animations > Animating temporal data
Supported field formats |
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Release 9.3
Last modified May 29, 2009 |
Print all topics in : "Animating temporal data" |
When animating data through time, you must specify the time field to use to animate by. Supported field types include date, string, and numeric. With string or numeric fields, you must determine the date format when setting up your animation.
Supported string field formats
YYYY
YYYYMM
YYYY/MM
YYYY-MM
YYYYMMDD
YYYY/MM/DD
YYYY-MM-DD
YYYYMMDDhhmmss
YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss
YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss
Supported numeric field formats
YYYY
YYYYMM
YYYYMMDD
YYYYMMDDhhmmss
Where
YYYY = four-digit year
MM = two-digit month (01=January)
DD = two-digit day of month (01 through 31)
hh = two digits of hour (00 through 23) (a.m./p.m. not allowed)
mm = two digits of minute (00 through 59)
ss = two digits of second (00 through 59)
If your field or fields are not formatted in one of the above ways, you can add a field (of the same format) and convert the values to one of the above formats.
Formatting a date string
You can use the Add Field tool to add an empty text field, then use the Calculate Field tool to execute the code that reformats the string. For a string field ([StrTest_1] in the code example) formatted as: DD.MM.YYYY hh:mm:ss, DD-MM-YYYY hh:mm:ss or DD/MM/YYYY hh:mm:ss, add a new text field, then populate its values as YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss by converting it using the following code:
Mid( [StrTest_1], 7, 4) & "/" & Mid( [StrTest_1], 4, 2) & "/" & Left( [StrTest_1], 2) & " " & Right( [StrTest_1], 8)
Description: Take the seventh character from the left, include it, and count three more to the left (YYYY). Add "/" and take the fourth character from the left, include it, and count one more to the left (MM). Add "/" and take the first character from the left, include it, and count one more to the left (DD). Add a space "" "" and take the last eight values (counting from the right, this is hh:mm:ss).
Learn more about the Add Field tool
Learn more about the Calculate Field tool
Using a numeric field to animate through
If your data does not have a field with time/date values, you can use ObjectID or a numeric field with sequential values. For example, to animate through 10 rasters in a raster catalog, you could use ObjectID, setting the following parameters in the Create Time Layer Animation dialog box:
When dealing with date/time values, such as YYYY, the format set on the Create Time Layer Animation dialog box isn't necessarily the same format you'll see in the animation. The animation shows a date/time string (based on your machine's regional settings). The field specified on the Create Time Layer Animation dialog box is the data that the date/time string is generated from for display. With a field such as YYYY, it is common for the date/time string to display as something similar to YYYY/MM/DD (depending on how your regional settings date/time format is set).
To show just YYYY as the date/time string in the display when animating through a field with YYYY values (and the field is string or numeric), set the following parameters in the Create Time Layer Animation dialog box:
The date/time string you'll see in the display will be formatted as YYYY, since no date format is being used in the animation. The animation is simply looping through the sequential numeric values in the field.
Learn more about creating a temporal animation
Learn more about regional settings
Time text format
What you see as the format of the date/time text when the animation is played may not be the same format as the time field you selected to use in your animation. This is because the format you see in the display and on the Time View and Keyframes tabs of the Animation Manager shows a date/time string, based on the date and time formats set in your operating system's regional settings dialog box (Control Panel/Regional and Language Options/Customize). The field selected as the temporal field is the data that the date/time string is generated from. You can customize the short date format in your regional settings dialog box if you want the date/time string in your animation to be formatted a certain way.
