topic Re: Copy table to in_memory in Geoprocessing Questions

Copy table to in_memory

MarkVolz — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 19:57:42 GMT

I would like to copy tables to "in_memory". Is this possible?

Background: I noticed processing data and joins is significantly faster when I use the in_memory location. It appears that the copy, copy rows, and feature class to feature class do not allow users to copy tables to the in memory location.

Re: Copy table to in_memory

DarrenWiens2 — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 18:09:13 GMT

You can copy tables using Copy Rows and feature classes using Copy Features, but curiously, it seems as though Copy Rows does not respect raw path notation.

>>> arcpy.CopyRows_management("myfeatureclass",r'in_memory\table')
Runtime error  Traceback (most recent call last):  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.2\arcpy\arcpy\management.py", line 14392, in CopyRows    raise e ExecuteError: ERROR 000210: Cannot create output in_memory\table Failed to execute (CopyRows). 
>>> arcpy.CopyRows_management("myfeatureclass",r'in_memory\mytable')
<Result 'in_memory\\mytable'>

edit: on further inspection, it's not a problem reading raw notation, it is a problem creating a table named "table".

Re: Copy table to in_memory

FreddieGibson — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 20:22:50 GMT

The code most likely threw the error on your first call to Copy Rows because "TABLE" is a SQL Reserved word. You can look at the following page for more information on this topic.

Using in-memory workspace—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

Re: Copy table to in_memory

MarkVolz — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 21:10:24 GMT

Nevermind, ArcGIS just needed a restart! Using "Copy Rows" works just fine when the output table is set to "in_memory\<output table>" (without quotes).

Thanks for all of your help!

Re: Copy table to in_memory

JoshuaBixby — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 15:08:06 GMT

In addition to the documentation that Freddie Gibson references, which I strongly encourage everyone to read, I also strongly encourage people to read the Foreground and background processing documentation. When using in_memory within ArcMap/ArcCatalog (ugh, I wish I could go back to just saying ArcGIS Desktop or Desktop), in_memory doesn't always mean in-memory when background processing is enabled.