which arcpy function to update geodatabase

Question

Hi,

I update our internal file geodatabase with shapefiles supplied by state government (parcels, roads etc). After learning Python I would like to now speed up and automate this process. My question is which arcpy function would I use to;

Compare the names of the downloaded shapefiles with the names of feature classes in the file geodatabase ie parcels.shp vs parcels? Would I just use the overwrite or should I delete first and then copy new features?

Thanks for your help,

Mark

WesMiller · Accepted Answer

In an ideal world you would be able to set up a replica from their geodatabase. Since you mentioned shapefiles I'm guessing they don't have a database published you could replicate from. You could use what i call "nuclear replication" where you use delete rows and then append rows essentially wiping out the database and replacing it with new data. You could easily do this in model builder