ArcSDESQLExecute error message contains unicode character

blake.terhune

If you execute an invalid SQL statement with arcpy.ArcSDESQLExecute(), it will return an error message with a unicode special character (see ArcSDESQLExecute_Error.gif). That unicode character in the error message actually causes an error with Python if you try to print the message (see PythonUnicode_Error.gif). Apparently this is a known Python issue.

I found you have to wrap the arcpy error message up in encoding so Python doesn't choke (haha).

except Exception as err:
        raise Exception(unicode(err.message).encode("utf-8"))

Why is this silly unicode character in an error message anyway? Has anyone else found a better way to deal with this?

ArcSDESQLExecute_Error.gif

PythonUnicode_Error.gif

blake.terhune

You may be right, possibly something with my version of Python and the place I'm running it from. I'm not sure how to run it from Windows Command Prompt so I just tried it in IDLE and still get the same error.

Here's how I'm running it

import arcpy
try:
    sdeconn = r"C:\GISConnections\SDE@GTEST.sde"
    sql = "SELECT * FROM INVALID_TABLE"
    cnxn = arcpy.ArcSDESQLExecute(sdeconn)
    sqlresult = cnxn.execute(sql)
    for i in sqlresult:
        print i
except Exception as err:
    print unicode(err.message).encode("utf-8")  ## Successfully prints Esri error message
    print err  ## Throws Python error
finally:
    # Cleanup
    if 'cnxn' in locals():
        del cnxn

Thanks for your persistence, Joshua. At least I know how to handle the error for now. I'll just hope it will go away after the next ArcGIS upgrade we do.