Arcpy - delete attribute data if string starts with..

[AliciaSoto]

Here's what I'm trying to do.

I have a shapefile called 'Roster' with an attribute table like the one below.

NAME	Age	Room
***John	23	B
***Alice	56	C
Tina	34	A

I would like to search the shapefile and delete any data under the field 'NAME' where the string starts with '***'

The resulting table would look like this

NAME	Age	Room
	23	B
	56	C
Tina	34	A

I figured out how to replace the '***' string with another string, but I can't figure out how to delete the entire cell....

def removeName(shapefilePath):
  cursor = arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(shapefilePath, ["NAME"]) 
  for row in cursor: 
       row[0] = row[0].replace("***", None)
       cursor.updateRow(row)
  del row
  del cursor

[CharlieFrye]

Replace the contents of the for block with:

nameStr = row[0]

if nameStr[0:3] == "***" then:

   newName = nameStr.replace("***", None)

   row[0] = newName

   cursor.update(row)

[CharlieFrye]

nameStr = row[0]

if nameStr[0:3] == "***" then:

   # This is if you wanted to just strip the ***

   newName = nameStr.replace("***", None)

   row[0] = newName

   # set the string to nothing

   row[0] = ""

   cursor.update(row)

[IanMurray]

No need for the then Charlie

[IanMurray]

def removeName(shapefilePath):  
  cursor = arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(shapefilePath, ["NAME"])  
    for row in cursor:  
      nameStr = row[0]

      if nameStr[0:3] == "***" :

        row[0] = ""

    cursor.update(row)

[AliciaSoto · Accepted solution]

Thank you both for your help.

The code worked once I changed cursor.update(row) to cursor.updateRow(row)

Here is the final code

def removeName(shapefilePath):
  cursor = arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(shapefilePath, ["NAME"])
  for row in cursor:
    nameStr = row[0]
    if nameStr[0:3] == "***":
      row[0] = ""
    cursor.updateRow(row)
  del row
  del cursor

[JoshuaBixby]

Although I am thinking the UpdateCursor (arcpy.da) might still be faster, one could also use Make Feature Layer or Select Layer By Attribute followed by Calculate Field.  My preference is usually arcpy, but there are other geoprocessing ways of accomplishing the same task.

def removeName(shapefilePath):
    arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(shapefilePath, "shapefileLayer",
                                      ' "NAME" LIKE \'***%\' ')
    arcpy.CalculateField_management("shapefileLayer", "NAME", "str()", "PYTHON_9.3")

[CharlieFrye]

Thanks Ian--I've been writing VBA lately...

[IanMurray]

I figured it was something like that Charlie, no worries

[RhettZufelt]

Another way to see if the name starts with ***

def removeName(shapefilePath):
  cursor = arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(shapefilePath, ["NAME"])
  for row in cursor:
    nameStr = row[0]
   if nameStr.startswith("***"): 
      row[0] = ""
    cursor.updateRow(row)
  del row
  del cursor

R_