How to remove overlap in a polygon feature class by date?

[RobHouthuijzen]

Hello, I have a polygon feature class in a File Geodatabase with partly overlapping polygons. One of the attributes is the date in a date field. I would like to update (as in the Overlay toolset from the Analysis tools in the ArcToolbox, using 10.2.2) the geometry based on the newest polygon. In other words, to remove the overlapping area(s) from the older polygon(s). I would like to use this in a scheduled script (arcpy), but for my understanding a manual solution is also very welcome.

Can anyone help me with this? Thanks in advance.

Rob Houthuijzen

[PROBERT68]

Can you create a topology and then create a rule that says "Must Not Overlaps" ? This way it will give you the error and and double click on it and select the ones you wanted

You can read about it here ArcGIS Help (10.2, 10.2.1, and 10.2.2)

[RobHouthuijzen]

That is correct. However, I would like to have the process automated as part of a daily data-updating script.

The attribute table contains a "Date field" which is filled, and I can see that I can sort by it. So I think that I should be able to use it in a geoprocessing step.