I am trying to add a where clause into a arcpy.da.SearchCursor statement, and I keep receiving a 'An expected Field was not found or could not be retrieved properly' error with this code: where_expression = ' "FIELD2" = "CODE1" or "FIELD2" = "CODE2" ' search_feats = { f [ 0 ] : f [ 1 ] for f in arcpy . da . SearchCursor ( table , [ "FIELD1" , "FIELD2" , "FIELD3" ] , where_expression ) } with arcpy . da . UpdateCursor ( New_Table , [ "NT_FIELD_1" , "NT_FIELD_3" ] ) as upd_cur : for upd_row in upd_cur : upd_row [ 1 ] = search_feats . get ( upd_row [ 0 ] , 0 ) upd_cur . updateRow ( upd_row ) del upd_cur I believe this error is falling on the where clause, as if I exclude the clause from search_feats, the code runs without error. I have used a where clause successfully in this structure in the past, but not with a text field such as FIELD2 here. Any tips or suggestions would be much appreciated. I have tried many different variations of syntax with no luck yet. I have verified that the fields exist in the table, have been typed correctly, and do not have any locks.

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'An expected field was not found or could not be retrieved properly' for arcpy.da.SearchCursor where clause

TessOldemeyer

I am trying to add a where clause into a arcpy.da.SearchCursor statement, and I keep receiving a 'An expected Field was not found or could not be retrieved properly' error with this code:

where_expression <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">' "FIELD2" = "CODE1" or "FIELD2" = "CODE2" '</SPAN>
search_feats <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="punctuation token">{</SPAN>f<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>f<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">1</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN> <SPAN class="keyword token">for</SPAN> f <SPAN class="keyword token">in</SPAN> arcpy<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>da<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>SearchCursor<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>table<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"FIELD1"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"FIELD2"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"FIELD3"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> where_expression<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">}</SPAN>‍‍

<SPAN class="keyword token">with</SPAN> arcpy<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>da<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>UpdateCursor<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>New_Table<SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"NT_FIELD_1"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN><SPAN class="string token">"NT_FIELD_3"</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN> <SPAN class="keyword token">as</SPAN> upd_cur<SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <SPAN class="keyword token">for</SPAN> upd_row <SPAN class="keyword token">in</SPAN> upd_cur<SPAN class="punctuation token">:</SPAN>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; upd_row<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">1</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN> <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> search_feats<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>get<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>upd_row<SPAN class="punctuation token">[</SPAN><SPAN class="number token">0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">]</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">,</SPAN> <SPAN class="number token">0</SPAN><SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; upd_cur<SPAN class="punctuation token">.</SPAN>updateRow<SPAN class="punctuation token">(</SPAN>upd_row<SPAN class="punctuation token">)</SPAN>&nbsp; 

<SPAN class="keyword token">del</SPAN> upd_cur‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍<SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

I believe this error is falling on the where clause, as if I exclude the clause from search_feats, the code runs without error. I have used a where clause successfully in this structure in the past, but not with a text field such as FIELD2 here.

Any tips or suggestions would be much appreciated. I have tried many different variations of syntax with no luck yet.

I have verified that the fields exist in the table, have been typed correctly, and do not have any locks.

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Accepted answers

RandyBurton

Try:

where_expression <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">" FIELD2 = 'CODE1' or FIELD2 = 'CODE2' "</SPAN>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍<SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

Field names in a where clause are usually not in quotes. And with file geodatabase, use outside double quotes; inside text field values in single quotes.

All comments

gisstaffnapacounty

I also ran into a problem similar with a different root cause. The following was returning An expected Field was not found or could not be retrieved properly. [Closure_Segment].

I found that my segId was unintentionally the value of None. Once a proper value was included no more problems.

where = "OBJECTID={}".format(segId)
cursor = arcpy.da.SearchCursor("Closure_Segment", ["OBJECTID","SHAPE@"], where_clause=where)
for row in cursor:
shp = row[1]

TessOldemeyer

That was the ticket! Thank you so much!

RandyBurton

Try:

where_expression <SPAN class="operator token">=</SPAN> <SPAN class="string token">" FIELD2 = 'CODE1' or FIELD2 = 'CODE2' "</SPAN>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍<SPAN class="line-numbers-rows"><SPAN>‍</SPAN></SPAN>

Field names in a where clause are usually not in quotes. And with file geodatabase, use outside double quotes; inside text field values in single quotes.

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