ArcGIS for Excel supports several degree-based notation formats for defining location coordinates.
In (x,y) degree-based formats, x represents longitude and y represents latitude. Specify hemisphere with +, -, N, S, E, or W. These can be combined within a single latitude-longitude pair. If omitted, a value is assumed to be positive (N for latitude, E for longitude).
In the WGS84 coordinate system, latitude <DD> values range from -90 to 90, and longitude <DDD> values range from -180 to 180.
Note:
ArcGIS for Excel does not currently support single-line coordinate values. Store the latitude and longitude values in separate fields or columns.Notation types and formats
Notation types and formats use the following syntax:
- <DD.dddd> denotes a latitude (y) coordinate in which degree (DD) values range from -90 to 90, and fraction of degrees (dddd) range from 0 to 00.
- <DDD.dddd> denotes a longitude (x) coordinate in which degree (DDD) values range from -180 to 180, and fraction of degrees (dddd) range from 0 to 99.
- | means or. For example, + | - means that you can use either the + or the - character.
- [ ] denotes a choice list. For example, [ + | - | N | S ] indicates that you can use the +, -, N, or S characters.
The following table lists the supported notation formats and provides an example of each:
| Notation type | Supported latitude (y) format | Supported longitude (x) format | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
DD (decimal degrees) | [ + | - ] DD.dddd | [ + | - ] DDD.dddd | 34.056687222, -117.195731667 |
DD.dddd [ + | - ] | DDD.dddd [ + | - ] | 34.056687222, 117.195731667- | |
[ N | S ] DD.dddd | [ E | W ] DDD.dddd | N 34.056687222, W 117.195731667 | |
DD.dddd [ N | S ] | DDD.dddd [ E | W ] | 34.056687222 N, 117.195731667 W | |
DD° MM' SS.sss" | [ + | - ] DD° MM' SS.sss" | [ + | - ] DDD° MM' SS.sss" | 34° 3' 24.0726", -117° 11' 44.631" |
DD° MM' SS.sss" [ + | - ] | DDD° MM' SS.sss" [ + | - ] | 34° 3' 24.0726", 117° 11' 44.631" - | |
[ N | S ] DD° MM' SS.sss" | [ E | W ] DDD° MM' SS.sss" | N 34° 3' 24.0726", W 117° 11' 44.631" | |
DD° MM' SS.sss" [ N | S ] | DDD° MM' SS.sss" [ E | W ] | 34° 3' 24.0726" N, 117° 11' 44.631" W | |
[ + | - ] DD° MM' | [ + | - ] DDD° MM' | 34° 3', -117° 11' | |
DD° MM' [ + | - ] | DDD° MM' [ + | - ] | 34° 3', 117° 11' - | |
[ N | S ] DD° MM' | [ E | W ] DDD° MM' | N 34° 3', W 117° 11' | |
DD° MM' [ N | S ] | DDD° MM' [ E | W ] | 34° 3' N, 117° 11' W | |
DDMMSS.sss | [ + | - ] DDMMSS.sss | [ + | - ] DDMMSS.sss | 340324.0726, -1171144.631 |
DDMMSS.sss [ + | - ] | DDDMMSS.sss [ + | - ] | 340324.0726, 1171144.631- | |
[ N | S ] DDMMSS.sss | [ E | W ] DDDMMSS.sss | N340324.0726, W1171144.631 | |
DDMMSS.sss [ N | S ] | DDDMMSS.sss [ E | W ] | 340324.0726N, 1171144.631W |
Degrees, minutes, seconds
ArcGIS for Excel supports the following:
| Mark type | Supported mark | Unicode |
|---|---|---|
Degree marks | Degree sign ° | U+00B0 |
Ring above ° | U+02DA | |
Masculine ordinal indicator º | U+00BA | |
Circumflex accent (caret) ^ | U+005E | |
Tilde ~ | U+007E | |
Asterisk * | U+002A | |
Minute marks | Minute sign ' | U+2032 |
Apostrophe ' | U+0027 | |
Second marks | Quotation mark " | U+0022 |
Diaeresis ¨ | U+00A8 | |
Double acute accent ˝ | U+02DD |
In most cases, all of the formats and markers listed above are valid regardless of spacing. For example, N 34° 3' 24.0726" and N34°3'24.0726" are both valid.
Cell value types
In general, the data types that can be written to a cell are number, text, logical (true and false), or error value. When you type input in a cell, Excel automatically detects and assigns the type.
For example, if you type abc, it is recognized as data type text. If you type true, it is recognized as data type logical and is automatically capitalized as TRUE to demonstrate that it is a logical value. If you type 0123, it is recognized as data type number and is converted to 123 in the cell.
Note:
The leading zero is removed when Excel assigns the data type and converts the value.
Format numbers
In Excel, you can format data type number as currency, percentage, decimal, and so on. This allows you to change how the number appears while keeping the data numeric rather than converting it to text, preserving numeric filtering and sorting capabilities.
See the Microsoft available number formats in Excel article for more information.
ArcGIS for Excel converts Excel number formats to ArcGIS Arcade expressions so that the numeric properties are preserved while properly formatting the data in map layer pop-ups and labels in Excel. The formats are also preserved in Arcade when the map or layer is shared to ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise, and across ArcGIS. ArcGIS for Excel supports the conversion of all built-in Excel formats to Arcade, and recognizes most custom Excel number formats.
Location data such as postal codes can be either converted to data type text or kept as data type number with special formatting applied to preserve any leading zeros.
Dates and time
In Excel, dates and times are represented as number data type, with date or time formatting.
Learn more about formatting numbers as dates
Learn more about formatting dates
However, since Excel automatically detects the type, it may fail to detect the value as a date and incorrectly convert it to text data type.
Map Excel value types to ArcGIS field types
When creating a layer from Excel data, the value types of each column must be identified to create the corresponding field in the new ArcGIS feature layer. The following table lists the Excel column types and the corresponding ArcGIS field types in ArcGIS for Excel:
| Excel column value type | ArcGIS field type |
|---|---|
Number (not formatted as a date or time) | Double |
Number with date or time formatting | Date |
Text | String |
Logical value | String |
Mixed (for example, numbers and text in the same column) | String |