Type System

Arcade has a full type system. It implicitly casts between types where appropriate, using a predefined set of rules.

Each type is described below.

Any

Represents any type described below. Some Arcade functions, such as Array, accept values of any type. A function may also return a value of any type depending on its inputs. In these cases, you may see function parameters and return types documented as Any.

Array

An object representing a list of elements. A single array can contain elements of various types, but they cannot have missing elements.

var z = [1,2,3];
var k = [1,2,"hello"];

return k[1];  // returns 2

z[0] = 23;  // z = [23,2,3]
z[3] = 24;  // Allowed as next sequential item;
z[1000] = 23 // Not allowed as would leave blanks;

You may iterate through the elements of an array using a for loop using the following syntax:

for (var index in myArray){
  // executes for each element in the array
}

Note that the variable index represents the index of the array, not the value of the element. So the following evaluates to 280:

var myArray = [10,20,30,40,50,60,70];
var sum = 0;
for(var k in myArray){
  sum += myArray[k];
}
// sum = 280
return sum;

Whereas the following slightly different code evaluates to 21:

var myArray = [10,20,30,40,50,60,70];
var sum = 0;
for(var k in myArray){
  sum += k;
}
// sum = 21
return sum;

Attachment

Defines information about attachments returned from feature service queries. These are fetched using the Attachments() function.

Property	Type	Description
id	number	The ID of the attachment.
name	string	The file name of the attachment including the file extension.
contentType	string	The content type of the attachment. The following are supported types: `bmp, ecw, emf, eps, ps, gif, img, jp2, jpc, j2k, jpf, jpg, jpeg, jpe, png, psd, raw, sid, tif, tiff, wmf, wps, avi, mpg, mpe, mpeg, mov, wmv, aif, mid, rmi, mp2, mp3, mp4, pma, mpv2, qt, ra, ram, wav, wma, doc, docx, dot, xls, xlsx, xlt, pdf, ppt, pptx, txt, zip, 7z, gz, gtar, tar, tgz, vrml, gml, json, xml, mdb, geodatabase`.
size	number	The size of the attachment in bytes.
exifInfo	Array	An array containing the Exif metadata of the attachment.

Boolean

Boolean values evaluate to either true or false.

var x = true;
var y = false;

String values resembling a boolean may be cast using the Boolean() function.

// z = true
var z = boolean('true');

Date

Dates describe a moment in time at various resolutions. The month parameter in the Date() function starts at 0 (for January).

// Date only (no timestamp)
var x = Date(2007,11,1);  // December 1, 2007

// Date with timestamp
var n = Date(2008,11,1,12,55); // December 1, 2008 at 12:55 p.m.

Dictionary

A collection of key/value pairs. The keys of the dictionary are case insensitive.

var d = Dictionary("field1", 1, "field2",2);
return d.field1 + d["field2"];   // Can access elements with either notation


// Can also declare dictionaries using object notation.
var c = {
  "field1": 1,
  "field2": 2
}

Feature

Features have attributes and optionally a geometry.

var d = Feature(myGeometry, "field1", 1, "field2",2);
return d.field1 + d["field2"];   // Can access elements with either notation

return Geometry(d);  // Can get the geometry of the feature using the geometry function.

The Feature constructor is overloaded.

// Creating a Feature using a Dictionary
var f = Feature(geom,  { "field1": 1, "field2": "myField2value" });

// You can also specify named parameters
var f = Feature({ geometry: geom, attributes:   { "field1": 1, "field2": "myField2value" }  });

FeatureSet

A FeatureSet represents a connection to a set of Features in memory or in a server. FeatureSets are lazy, iterable, and chainable. FeatureSets allow you to access features from feature service layers within the map or feature service.

FeatureSets can be created from JSON with the FeatureSet() function, or referenced using the $layer global, which is a FeatureSet of all features in the same layer as the feature executing the Arcade.

// Returns the highest population among all features in the layer
Max($layer, "Population");

Or you can create a FeatureSet using one of the functions below, which takes the $map or $datastore as a global variable and returns one if its layers based on its title, layer ID, or portal item ID.

// returns true if the feature intersects sensitive land features from another layer in the map
var publicLandFeatures = FeatureSetByName($map, "public lands", ["class"], true);
var sensitiveAreas = Filter(publicLandFeatures, "class = 'sensitive'");
Count( Intersects( sensitiveAreas, $feature ) );

FeatureSetCollection

A collection of FeatureSets. This data type is only used when working with the $map and $datastore globals available in the Popup, Field Calculation, and Attribute Rule profiles. The $map represents a collection of layers (or FeatureSets) in the map of the feature executing the Arcade expression. The $datastore represents a collection of layers in the same feature service as the feature executing the Arcade expression.

For example, the FeatureSetByName() function returns the layer with the given name in the $map FeatureSetCollection.

var publicLandFeatures = FeatureSetByName($map, "public lands", ["class"], true);

Geometry

Arcade includes five geometry types: Point, Multipoint, Polyline, Polygon, Extent. Geometry is immutable, meaning it is not possible to change the geometry after it is created.

Features contain geometry, which may be returned from the Geometry() function.

// returns the feature's geometry
Geometry($feature)

// Geometry Types have overloaded functions.
var pt = Point({ 'x': 100, 'y': 100, 'spatialReference':{'wkid':102100} });
var pl = Polyline({ 'paths' : [ [ [-97.06138,32.837], [-97.06133,32.836], [-97.06124,32.834], [-97.06127,32.832] ],  [ [-97.06326,32.759], [-97.06298,32.755] ] ] , 'spatialReference':{'wkid':102100}});
var pg = Polygon({'rings' : [ [ [-97.06138,32.837], [-97.06133,32.836], [-97.06124,32.834], [-97.06127,32.832], [-97.06138,32.837] ],  [ [-97.06326,32.759], [-97.06298,32.755], [-97.06153,32.749], [-97.06326,32.759] ] ], 'spatialReference':{'wkid':102100}});
var env = Extent({  'xmin' : -109.55, 'ymin' : 25.76, 'xmax' : -86.39, 'ymax' : 49.94, 'spatialReference':{'wkid':102100} });
var mp = Multipoint({ 'points' : [ [-97.06138,32.837], [-97.06133,32.836], [-97.06124,32.834], [-97.06127,32.832] ], 'spatialReference':{'wkid':102100} });

// General geometry creation. Will work out type from arguments.
var geom = Geometry({ 'x': 100, 'y': 100, 'spatialReference':{'wkid':102100} })

The following tables describe the specification of each geometry type.

Point

A point is a zero-dimensional geometry. This may be created by passing JSON in the format described below to the Point() function or by passing a point feature to the Geometry() function.

Property	Type	Description
type	text	Indicates the geometry type. This value is always `point`.
x	number	The x-coordinate of the point.
y	number	The y-coordinate of the point.
z	number	The z-coordinate of the point. This may be `null`.
m	number	The m value of the point.
hasZ	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has a z-coordinate or elevation.
hasM	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has an m-value.
spatialReference	Object	The spatial reference of the geometry. This object contains a `wkid` property that indicates the Well-known ID of the geographic or projected coordinate system that defines the reference for which to draw the geometry.

Multipoint

A multipoint is a zero-dimensional geometry. This may be created by passing JSON in the format described below to the Multipoint() function or by passing a multipoint feature to the Geometry() function.

Property	Type	Description
type	text	Indicates the geometry type. This value is always `multipoint`.
points	Point[]	An array of points making up the multipoint geometry.
hasZ	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has z-coordinates or elevation values.
hasM	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has m-values.
spatialReference	Object	The spatial reference of the geometry. This object contains a `wkid` property that indicates the Well-known ID of the geographic or projected coordinate system that defines the reference for which to draw the geometry.

Polyline

A polyline is a one-dimensional geometry. This may be created by passing JSON in the format described below to the Polyline() function or by passing a polyline feature to the Geometry() function.

Property	Type	Description
type	text	Indicates the geometry type. This value is always `polyline`.
paths	number[][][]	A three-dimensional array of numbers. The inner-most array contains the x,y,z,m coordinates of a single point. The second dimension contains additional points making up a line segment. The third dimension allows the polyline to have multiple segments.
hasZ	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has z-coordinates or elevation values.
hasM	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has m-values.
spatialReference	Object	The spatial reference of the geometry. This object contains a `wkid` property that indicates the Well-known ID of the geographic or projected coordinate system that defines the reference for which to draw the geometry.

Polygon

A polygon is a two-dimensional geometry. This may be created by passing JSON in the format described below to the Polygon() function or by passing a polygon feature to the Geometry() function.

Property	Type	Description
type	text	Indicates the geometry type. This value is always `polygon`.
rings	number[][][]	A three-dimensional array of numbers. The inner-most array contains the x,y,z,m coordinates of a single point. The second dimension contains additional points making up a ring, or line segment whose first point and last point match. The third dimension allows the polygon to have multiple rings.
hasZ	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has z-coordinates or elevation values.
hasM	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has m-values.
spatialReference	Object	The spatial reference of the geometry. This object contains a `wkid` property that indicates the Well-known ID of the geographic or projected coordinate system that defines the reference for which to draw the geometry.

Extent

An extent is a bounding box describing an area of interest. This may be created by passing JSON in the format described below to the Geometry().

Property	Type	Description
type	text	Indicates the geometry type. This value is always `extent`.
xMax	number	The upper bound, or highest possible x-coordinate of the extent.
xMin	number	The lower bound, or lowest possible x-coordinate of the extent.
yMax	number	The upper bound, or highest possible y-coordinate of the extent.
yMin	number	The lower bound, or lowest possible y-coordinate of the extent.
zMax	number	The upper bound, or highest possible z-coordinate of the extent. This value may be `null`.
zMin	number	The lower bound, or lowest possible z-coordinate of the extent. This value may be `null`.
mMax	number	The upper bound, or highest possible m-value of the extent. This value may be `null`.
mMin	number	The lower bound, or lowest possible m-value of the extent. This value may be `null`.
hasZ	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has z-coordinates or elevation values.
hasM	boolean	Indicates if the geometry has m-values.
spatialReference	Object	The spatial reference of the geometry. This object contains a `wkid` property that indicates the Well-known ID of the geographic or projected coordinate system that defines the reference for which to draw the geometry.

Number

Numbers are a single data type that are used in computations and Math functions.

They can be integers.

var x = 10;
var y = 100;

Or floating point values.

var z = 1.2;
var n = Number("1.2");

String values resembling numbers may be cast using the Number() function.

// n = 1.2
var n = number("1.2");

Two number constants are also available for your convenience. Click the links below to see the documentation for each.

Infinity
PI

Portal

The Portal type represents an instance of an ArcGIS Portal (e.g. ArcGIS Online). This type is created by passing the URL to the portal instance to the Portal() function.

This type only applies to the portal parameter of the FeatureSetByPortalItem() function.

// This represents ArcGIS Online. You would place your portal url here
var myPortal = Portal("https://www.arcgis.com");

// references a layer with its ID from a specified portal instance
var fs = new FeatureSetByPortalItem(myPortal, "7b1fb95ab77f40bf8aa09c8b59045449", 0, ["*"], false);

Text

The text type, also known as string, is a series of characters wrapped in single or double quotes. Any number or boolean may be converted to a text value using the Text() function.

var x = "This is a Text variable";
var z = 'This is also a text variable';

// n = "100"
var n = Text(100);

Several text constants are also available for your convenience. These allow you to insert special characters in text without needing to use escape characters. Click the links below to see the documentation for each.

As of version 1.11, you can embed expressions in text using template literals.

ArcGIS Arcade

Type System

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