topic Reading and Writing Feature Class in a File Geodatabase Using Geopandas in Python Questions

Reading and Writing Feature Class in a File Geodatabase Using Geopandas

tzz_12 — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 19:51:30 GMT

I am able to read and write shapefiles in ArcGIS Pro using geopandas, but it would be more useful to read and write within a geodatabase. When I try to read a feature class in a file geodatabase, I get the following driver error:

DriverIOError: Attempt to create csv layer (file) against a non-directory datasource.

When I try to write a geodataframe as a feature class, I get the following error:

No such file or directory

I am wondering what I'm doing wrong... Please see my script below:

file = outGDB + '\FC_Name'

FC_gdf = gp.read_file(file, driver = 'FileGDB'))

FC_gdf = gp.to_file(file, driver = 'FileGDB')

Thanks for your help!

Re: Reading and Writing Feature Class in a File Geodatabase Using Geopandas

dslamb2022 — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 20:01:49 GMT

I think this is an issue with having the FileGeodatabase drivers in a place that gdal / fiona can find it. Those two libraries are the backend for GeoPandas. You can get this setup, but it can be a pain to get it all working. For example: https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/378890/adding-support-to-esris-filegdb-driver-when-fiona-gdal-osgeo-were-installed-thr

Some other info: https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/filegdb.html#vector-filegdb

An alternative is to use the ArcGIS API for python and read and write a spatially enabled DataFrame. GeoPandas is better in a lot of ways, but SEDF generally works well with File Geodatabases and an ArcGIS Pro license: https://developers.arcgis.com/python/guide/part2-data-io-reading-data/

Re: Reading and Writing Feature Class in a File Geodatabase Using Geopandas

MikeMacRae — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:49:46 GMT

I ran into this issue today and after sleuthing around, it looks like we are not providing the first parameters correctly in the geopandas.read_file() method. In the case of a geodatabase feature class as the path, you need to enter just the geodatabase as the path parameter and point to a particular feature class using the layer parameter. i.e.

gdf = geopandas.read_file(r"C:\MyGeodatabase.gdb", layer="FeatureClassName", driver='OpenFileGDB')

This works fine for me. The only issue I can't seem to solve is to point at a feature class buried in a feature dataset.