ee.ImageCollection.getString

  • The ImageCollection.getString() method extracts a specified property value as a string from a given feature (or in this case, an Image Collection).

  • Properties can be set on an Image Collection using the set() method, either with a dictionary or key-value pairs.

  • Retrieved property values often need to be explicitly cast to the appropriate data type (e.g., ee.Number, ee.String) for further use in computations.

  • ImageCollection.get() retrieves a property value as an ambiguous object, while methods like getString(), getNumber(), and getArray() retrieve values as specific Earth Engine data types.

Extract a property from a feature.

UsageReturns
ImageCollection.getString(property)String
ArgumentTypeDetails
this: objectElementThe feature to extract the property from.
propertyStringThe property to extract.

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// A contrived, empty image collection for simple demonstration.
var col = ee.ImageCollection([]);
print('Collection without properties', col);

// Set collection properties using a dictionary.
col = col.set({
  project_name: 'biomass_tracking',
  project_id: 3,
  plot_ids: ee.Array([7, 11, 20])
});

// Set collection properties using a series of key-value pairs.
col = col.set('project_year', 2018,
              'rgb_vis', 'false_color');

print('Collection with properties', col);

// Get a dictionary of collection property keys and values.
print('Property keys and values (ee.Dictionary)', col.toDictionary());

// Get the value of a collection property. To use the result of
// ee.ImageCollection.get in further computation, you need to cast it to the
// appropriate class, for example, ee.Number(result) or ee.String(result).
print('Project ID (ambiguous object)', col.get('project_id'));

// Get the value of a string collection property as an ee.String object.
print('Project name (ee.String)', col.getString('project_name'));

// Get the value of a numeric collection property as an ee.Number object.
print('Project year (ee.Number)', col.getNumber('project_year'));

// Get the value of an ee.Array collection property as an ee.Array object.
print('Plot IDs (ee.Array)', col.getArray('plot_ids'));

Python setup

See the Python Environment page for information on the Python API and using geemap for interactive development.

import ee
import geemap.core as geemap

Colab (Python)

from pprint import pprint

# A contrived, empty image collection for simple demonstration.
col = ee.ImageCollection([])
print('Collection without properties:')
pprint(col.getInfo())

# Set collection properties using a dictionary.
col = col.set({
    'project_name': 'biomass_tracking',
    'project_id': 3,
    'plot_ids': ee.Array([7, 11, 20])
})

# Set collection properties using a series of key-value pairs.
col = col.set('project_year', 2018,
              'rgb_vis', 'false_color')

print('Collection with properties:')
pprint(col.getInfo())

# Get a dictionary of collection property keys and values.
print('Property keys and values (ee.Dictionary):')
pprint(col.toDictionary().getInfo())

# Get the value of a collection property. To use the result of
# ee.ImageCollection.get in further computation, you need to cast it to the
# appropriate class, for example, ee.Number(result) or ee.String(result).
print('Project ID (ambiguous object):', col.get('project_id').getInfo())

# Get the value of a string collection property as an ee.String object.
print('Project name (ee.String):', col.getString('project_name').getInfo())

# Get the value of a numeric collection property as an ee.Number object.
print('Project year (ee.Number):', col.getNumber('project_year').getInfo())

# Get the value of an ee.Array collection property as an ee.Array object.
print('Plot IDs (ee.Array):', col.getArray('plot_ids').getInfo())