Creating new shapefile based on its attributes with python

Question

I have a shapefile which has an attribute year. I used to generally copy and paste these features in the dataframe and then using the definition query just show polygons which were established before that year.

I want to know how can I do it using python. Like if I can give the input feature class, add all the years I want the different shapefiles for and the workspace where it can create shapefile for the mentioned years with the right naming convention.

Thank You.

T__WayneWhitley · Accepted Answer

...don't know if the moderator wants to delete this thread or if sxt128130 can remove it, but this was answered yesterday in a cross-post here:

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/54927-Creating-Many-Shapefiles-Features-using-Python-Model-Builder-from-one-Shapefile.

The basic answer offered, copied from that post (also, thanks to Mathew Coyle and Dan Patterson for the earlier guidance)-- import arcpy fc = "D:\2010.shp" yrs = [1991,1992,1996,1998,1999,2000,2003,2004,2005,2006,2008,2010] subtract = '' for yr in yrs:      where = '"Year" <= ' + str(yr) + subtract      subtract = ' AND "Year" > ' + str(yr)      filename = str(yr) + '.shp'      arcpy.FeatureClassToFeatureClass_conversion(fc, "D:\test output", filename, where)

Thanks,
Wayne