topic Re: List Feature Classes within Subfolders using Python in Python Questions

List Feature Classes within Subfolders using Python

TomJansen — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:16:53 GMT

I'm trying to get a list of feature classes in a folder and it's subfolders. Below is a script that gets just the folder specified. Any help on how to loop through the subfolders is appreciated.

import arcpy
from arcpy import env
import os
# Set the workspace for the ListFeatureClass function
env.workspace = "C:/Data"
# Use the ListFeatureClasses function to return a list
fcList = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses()
print fcList

Re: List Feature Classes within Subfolders using Python

JasonScheirer — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 12:37:31 GMT

import arcpy
import os

def fcs_in_workspace(workspace):
  arcpy.env.workspace = workspace
  for fc in arcpy.ListFeatureClasses():
    print os.path.join(workspace, fc)
  for ws in arcpy.ListWorkspaces():
    fcs_in_workspace(os.path.join(workspace, ws))

fcs_in_workspace("C:/Data")

Re: List Feature Classes within Subfolders using Python

ChristinaHerrick1 — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:58:02 GMT

How would you then iterate through the list later in the script?

Ex. "for fc in fclist: ..."

Re: List Feature Classes within Subfolders using Python

JasonScheirer — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 12:37:34 GMT

You could use a generator in this case:

import arcpy
import os

def fcs_in_workspace(workspace):
  arcpy.env.workspace = workspace
  for fc in arcpy.ListFeatureClasses():
    yield os.path.join(workspace, fc)
  for ws in arcpy.ListWorkspaces():
    for fc in fcs_in_workspace(os.path.join(workspace, ws)):
        yield fc

for fc in fcs_in_workspace("C:/Data"):
   ...

Or you could do something like

fclist = list(fcs_in_workspace("C:/Data"))

and reuse it.

Re: List Feature Classes within Subfolders using Python

ChristinaHerrick1 — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:37:00 GMT

Awesome! Thanks!

Re: List Feature Classes within Subfolders using Python

JeffBigos — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 21:34:03 GMT

Hi All,

I wanted to add to additional ways to accomplish this and apply it to different data types.

I teach Python for Esri and have had this question come up in class alot.

1. Arcpy.da.walk:

This was introduced to the data access module at 10.1 SP1

ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

Where this function is nice is in 2 parameters

Datatype: the value set here is the filter for what is returned as walk traverses the subfolders

type: not for all datasets, but at least you could specify point, line, poly or raster types

Look at the Sample script 1 in the documentation

2. python os.walk:

this function will perform the same type operation gathering subfolders and files

The one difference is this won't retrieve contents inside of a geodatabase.

This could be used if you script involved python code with out the use of arcpy

maybe you needed to find all the .xls files under a D:\projects folder.

15.1. os — Miscellaneous operating system interfaces — Python 2.7.8 documentation

Thanks,

Jeff