Measure Straight line distance

Question

I have a polyline in ArcMap and I'd like to be able to do two different length (Or distance) measurements utilizing Python.  The first measurement needs to be length from endpoint to endpoint within the polyline.  I accomplished this part.

The polyline is wavy and bent.  I want measure straight line distance from endpoint to endpoint.  This is easy using the measure tool within Arc, but I want to add the measurement to part of a script I'm working on. I know that the distance measurement is: X^0.5((x1-x2)^2 + (y1-y2)^2) but short of writing down the coordinates and fat fingering them into the script how can I get Python and Arc to access the endpoint information to utilize this distance measurement?

Thanks,

Nick

HemingZhu · Answer

Thanks Angela.  I can definitely accomplish this, however I don't know how I can ensure that I am measuring straight line distance from end point to end point (Shortest route?) as opposed to distance along the polyline.

XYToLine_management will create a featureclass containing geodetic two-point features from start and end points (no matter what the unit the points are in).

markdenil · Answer

The distance between the (end) points can be calculated using the Pythagorean theorem, and will by definition be a straight line; or at least it will be a straight line in whatever coordinate space you are using.
Each coordinate system holds highly parochial (and often quite localized) views of the definition of 'straight' and 'shortest'. Make sure that the system's opinions align with yours, or at least that the errors are small enough to be negligible.

NicholasWissler1 · Answer

Thanks Angela.  I can definitely accomplish this, however I don't know how I can ensure that I am measuring straight line distance from end point to end point (Shortest route?) as opposed to distance along the polyline.