Add a city field and state field to a table of zip codes with Python

Question

I have a shapefile of zip codes in the U.S. I am brand new to coding. Using Python, how can I add a city field and state field with the appropriate cities/states for each zip code?

I need to do this with the import arcpy module.

Is this possible?

MatthewBrown123324 · Answer

this might be useful:

https://community.esri.com/docs/DOC-15525-httpssimplemapscomdataus-zips

MatthewBrown123324 · Answer

If you had the data matching zipcodes to cities and states you would simply perform a join. however if all your data is geospatial (polygons etc..) and you wish to update the fields you could perform the following:

however if you have the cities and states as shapefiles

adding the fields would be done along these lines:

# Import system modules

import arcpy

# Set environment settings

arcpy.env.workspace = "C:/data/"

# Set local variables

inFeatures = "zipcodes.shp"

fieldName1 = "city"

field_length1 = 8

fieldName2 = "state"

fieldLength2 = 10

# Execute AddField twice for two new fields

arcpy.AddField_management(inFeatures, fieldName1, "TEXT",field_length=field_length1)

arcpy.AddField_management(inFeatures, fieldName2, "TEXT", field_length=fieldLength2)

once the fields are added they could be updated using something similar to this:

* cityFC = r"C:\data\city_polygons.shp"

* stateFC = r"C:\data\state_polygons.shp"

* arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(infeatures, "index_fl")

* searchRows = arcpy.da.SearchCursor(cityFC, ["SHAPE@","CITY_NAME"])

* for searchRow in searchRows:

*    geomObj, cityName = searchRow

*    arcpy.SelectLayerByLocation_management("index_fl", "INTERSECT", geomObj, "", "NEW_SELECTION")

*    arcpy.CalculateField_management(infeatures, "city", "'" + cityName + "'", "PYTHON", "")

* searchRows = arcpy.da.SearchCursor(stateFC, ["SHAPE@","STATE_NAME"])

* for searchRow in searchRows:

*    geomObj, stateName = searchRow

*    arcpy.SelectLayerByLocation_management("index_fl", "INTERSECT", geomObj, "", "NEW_SELECTION")

*    arcpy.CalculateField_management(infeatures, "city", "'" + stateName + "'", "PYTHON", "")

WicketWarrick · Answer

I was thinking of creating a separate csv file and creating a list of zip codes/cities/states manually.