Where clause not working in 10.1 with Copy Features / Copy Rows

Question

We are using scripts and workflows that use the Create Table View / Create Feature Layer with a where clause specified. These functions seem to work (i.e. the correct subsets are shown in ArcMap), but when we try to use Copy Rows / Copy Features, it appears that the where clause is not being observed (i.e. all the records in the original data are copied).

The issue showed up when we tried the scripts on our 10.1 machines (Python 2.7), but it's working fine on our 10.0 machines (Python 2.6). Does anyone know (or can guess) what is going on here? I've looked, but I haven't seen any documented changes between 10.0 and 10.1 as far as how views behave or how the copy functions work.

Thanks.

JakeSkinner · Answer

Try running the Make Table View and Copy Rows tool outside of your script.  Are you able to reproduce the same issue?  Is the issue reproducible if these tools are executed on a different table?

AnthonyVandrunen · Answer

The code is very simple: excluding setup (e.g. defining data input/output), all that's left are the basic calls below. Note that the output destination is always a personal geodatabase.arcpy.MakeTableView_management( table, view, "MUNICIPALITY_NAME='CITY OF OTTAWA'", "", fieldInfo )   
arcpy.CopyRows_management( view, dataset )

Similarly, using ArcMap 10.1, we can create a proper feature layer with the toolbox (which creates the layer subset with a definition query based on the SDE layer). But when we use the Copy Features tool, all of the records are copied.

I have not played around with the workspace parameter -- could this cause issues?

JakeSkinner · Answer

Hi Anthony,

Have you tested this outside of your script?  Can you post your script?  If copying/pasting the code, don't forget to wrap it in CODE tags using the "#" symbol.