How to open another shape file and pass it as a string into the current script

Question

So I hopefully have a really simple question here. I am writing a codeblock for the CalculateField_management function but due to the length of my codeblock, and the fact that I will have to repeatedly edit it in the future, I want to put the codeblock into another py text file and then open it within a main script and pass it in as a string for CalculateField_management to interpret. This sounds very simple, but when trying to google it, I only ever get help on modules and arguments. The problem with creating a module is that I cannot have my codeblock function defined outside of CalculateField, so the input definition needs to go into the codeblock as a string. This is what I tried so far but it does not know that f is suppose to reference my opened file. File "", line 3, in NameError: name 'f' is not defined Failed to execute (CalculateField). # Import system modules import arcpy # Set local variables inTable = "Zarza data" fieldName = "DipDir" expression = "Strike( !Shape!, !FID! )" codeblock =""" open("D:/Alex/someplace/ZarzaModule.py",'r') #opens text file with def for function Strike() val = f.read() print(val) """ arcpy.CalculateField_management(inTable, fieldName, expression, "PYTHON_9.3", codeblock)‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ I might also need to operate the code outside of my codeblock and have: codeblock = str(val)‍‍‍ But I need to fix referencing my opened file first.

RandyBurton · Answer

Although you can do it like that, I think Dan Patterson‌'s suggestion of using "include" is better. Examples: The include file: # file is named "fieldcalc.py" def Strike(a, b): return "{}, {}".format(a,b) def AnotherFunct(a, b): return "{} not {}".format(a,b) ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ Use it like this: import fieldcalc w = "Hello" x = "world" y = 3 z = 1 print fieldcalc.Strike(w,x) # Hello, world print fieldcalc.AnotherFunct(y,z) # 3 not 1 ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ Or: from fieldcalc import Strike, AnotherFunct w = "Hello" x = "world" y = 3 z = 1 print Strike(w,x) # Hello, world print AnotherFunct(y,z) # 3 not 1‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

DanPatterson_Retired · Answer

I suppose if you want the code block, that will work... here is another import inspect # the inspect module import tools # the *.py script that contains your 'def' # --- getting the code block for 'def leopard' (my homage func) lines, ln_num = inspect.getsourcelines(tools.leopard) # ---- inspect and retrieve code = "".join(["{}".format(line) for line in lines]) # ---- join 'em up code # ---- have a look 'def leopard(): """some function""" print("imported and ready to go""") ' ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

AlexanderAudet · Answer

I figured it out, it was a stupid syntax mistake, but perhaps it would help someone with a similar question in the future? Thank you Dan for your insightful advise! I imagine you would do that with a for loop and cursors if you needed information from other fields to calculate each value? Then you would .append each value to a list and somehow copy the list to your new field? # Import system modules import arcpy # Set local variables inTable = "Zarza data" fieldName = "DipDir" expression = "Strike( !Shape!, !FID! )" f = open("D:/Alex/someplace/ZarzaModule.py",'r') #opens text file with def for function Strike() codeblock = f.read() arcpy.CalculateField_management(inTable, fieldName, expression, "PYTHON_9.3", codeblock)‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍