Smashing attributes together for convenient mapping

Sometimes you have all the data pieces you need to make your thematic map, but they don’t live in a single handy attribute. Here’s how to use an Arcade Expression to merge attributes together into a dynamic new field. Plus a little tidbit about normalizing choropleths to take into account the underlying population. And stuff.

0:00 Exquisite introduction

0:13 The data that we do have (males aged 85+ and females aged 85+)

0:35 The data that we don’t have…yet (everybody aged 85+)

0:43 Arcade Expressions to the rescue! Don’t worry, it won’t be complicated (I can’t even code)

1:21 Visualizing the results. Oh no, we’ve accidentally created an Age 85+ map that’s indistinguishable from total population!

1:45 Time to normalize for the underlying population! We’ll just add total population as a denominator in our expression

2:13 Feeling WILD? You can make a bivariate map showing total population and the proportion of those aged 85+ all in one symbol

Happy Expressioning! John

About the author

John Nelson

I have far too much fun looking for ways to understand and present data visually, hopefully driving product strategy and engaging users. I work in the ArcGIS Living Atlas team at Esri, pushing and pulling data in all sorts of absurd ways and then sharing the process. I also design user experiences for maps and apps. When I'm not doing those things, I'm chasing around toddlers and wrangling chickens, and generally getting into other ad-hoc adventures. Life is good. You might also like these Styles for ArcGIS Pro: esriurl.com/nelsonstyles

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