Using shortened block or tract numbers in the Plan Components Report is very easy. All you have to do is create a formula field (which you call Name) that contains the information you want displayed. For example, to show the block group and block number of a block (the last 6 digits of the 15-16 digit code), you would do the following:
- Make Census Block the Working Layer by right clicking on the layer in the Display Manager and select Make Working Layer (the active layer; Census Block should appear in the drop-down list to the right of the printer icon).
- Choose Dataview>Formula Fields and type the following:
Substring(Block,12,10)
Replace the default field name Formula with the name “Name” (this is case-sensitive, so the “N” should be uppercase and the “ame” should be lowercase).
- Click OK.
This will create a new field in the Census Block dataview, called Name, which contains the last 10 characters of the field Block starting with position 12.
Now when you run the Plan Components report, 1234 will appear instead to the right of Block instead of 190011234561234.
To show only the tract for the Census Tract layer, make Census Tract and use the formula substring(Tract,6,10). In this case, 123456 would appear in the report rather than 19001123456.