topic Re: Shapefile name to Field Name in Data Management Questions

Shapefile name to Field Name

JamesWhite5 — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:09:49 GMT

Good afternoon. I am trying to figure out how to write a script in Python with extremely little experience. I have been pouring through forums here and at Stack Exchange, but everything seems to be a little out of date.

I have ~200 shapefiles that I merged into a single featureclass within a geodatabase. I am using a schema that has the field "NAME" in it. I am trying to take the name of the individual shapefiles (x27y407.shp for example) and write that name, minus the .shp, into the NAME field.

Most of the code I am finding to try and work with seems like it is using python 9 or earlier, so am having a hard time trying to piece it together.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Shapefile name to Field Name

JoeBorgione — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:53:53 GMT

You've already done the merge? Not sure how you can recoup the origin name after the fact.

Are you using Python and Arcpy? If so you could try:

Create a list of all the shapefiles in a given directory: Python os.listdir() Method - Tutorialspoint

Step through that list and for each shapeFile.shp, 'slice' the name out of it: Python String split() Method - Tutorialspoint

Join the name back to a string: Python String join() Method - Tutorialspoint

And finally use arcpy to calculate the value of the field in question to that string: Calculate Field (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Re: Shapefile name to Field Name

JamesWhite5 — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:59:17 GMT

Thank you. I will look into that.

And yes, I think I did the merge too quick. I think I need to create the NAME field, then merge, and then I can just use the field calculator to populate the NAME field I really need populated.

Re: Shapefile name to Field Name

JoeBorgione — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:15:46 GMT

You'll want to be sure to update name field before you merge. Once you get going on this, post up any questions you have as you go along...

Re: Shapefile name to Field Name

JamesWhite5 — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:54:18 GMT

Joe,

Thank you for the replies on this. I did find it way easier to just add the field FILE_NAME to the shapefile attributes, then merge the schema I needed with the shapefile to create a new .gdb file, then just used field calculator to get rid of NULLs and move the file names over.

Thank you again.

Re: Shapefile name to Field Name

JoshuaBixby — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 15:08:24 GMT

It appears you have resolved your issue. If so, please mark an answer correct to close out this question.

Re: Shapefile name to Field Name

JoshuaBixby — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 15:51:13 GMT

James White‌, I unmarked your answer and gave the correct answer to Joe, since it was his comments that sent you down the right path. Typically, the "Correct" answer is the one that gave you the knowledge to solve the issue, that might be code itself or higher-level information like, "update name field before you merge." It is helpful for the OP to post their final solution/workflow, but that final reply from the OP typically isn't the "Correct" answer unless there was some substantially new or different information in it.

Re: Shapefile name to Field Name

JamesWhite5 — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 15:57:25 GMT

Joshua,

Ok, I will remember that. I didn't realize how that worked, thank you.