Can you list feature classes' aliases with arcpy?

[AllenDailey1]

Is there a way to use Python/arcpy to access/list a feature class's alias?  I'm talking about the name of the feature class, not field aliases (which I already figured out how to do).

Based on my searching of Esri's documentation, there doesn't seem to be a way to do this via Describe or ListFeatureClasses.  Is there some other way?

I ask because I'm trying to create a CSV file that contains many feature classes' names, fields, and field aliases. I will use the file to review the field names and stuff and write notes about things I want to change when I migrate the data from a file geodatabase to an enterprise geodatabase.  It would also be helpful to be able to see the feature class alias in this CSV file.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[DanPatterson · Accepted solution]

import arcpy
fc1 = r"C:\arcpro_npg\Project_npg\TestShapes.gdb\clp"
desc = arcpy.da.Describe(fc1)

dir(desc)
#-- snip ---
# big list of properties
# alternately

desc.keys()
Out[7]: dict_keys(['catalogPath', 'FIDSet', 'size', 'dateCreated',
 'dateAccessed', 'dateModified', 'workspace', 'supportsBigObjectID',
 'supportsBigInteger', 'supportsTimeOnly', 'supportsDateOnly',
 'supportsTimestampOffset', 'aliasName', 'areaFieldName', 'attributeRules',
 'baseName', 'canVersion', 'changeTracked', 'children', 'childrenExpanded',
 'createdAtFieldName', 'creatorFieldName', 'dataElementType', 'datasetType',
 'dataType', 'defaultSubtypeCode', 'DSID', 'editedAtFieldName', 
'editorFieldName', 'editorTrackingEnabled', 'extension', 
'extensionProperties', 'extent', 'featureType', 'fields', 'file', 
'fullPropsRetrieved', 'geometryStorage', 'globalIDFieldName', 'hasGlobalID',
 'hasM', 'hasOID', 'hasOID64', 'hasSpatialIndex', 'hasZ', 'indexes',
 'isCOGOEnabled', 'isCompressed', 'isTimeInUTC', 'isVersioned',
 'lengthFieldName', 'metadataRetrieved', 'MExtent', 'modelName', 'name',
 'OIDFieldName', 'path', 'rasterFieldName', 'relationshipClassNames',
 'representations', 'shapeFieldName', 'shapeType', 'spatialReference',
 'subtypeFieldName', 'versionedView', 'ZExtent'])

# ----
desc['aliasName']
''

# == my fc doesn't have an alias set

Give it try with your data

[AllenDailey1]

Thank you, Dan!  The Describe documentation for feature classes only listed 8 properties for feature classes - so, only a small portion of the ones you accessed.  And it hadn't "clicked" for me that arcpy.da.Describe produces a dictionary and that the dictionary could be explored like that.

For anyone else who may be wondering about this, here is how I got the feature class's alias into a variable:

import arcpy
arcpy.env.workspace = "\\\\my\\file\\geodatabase"
fcs = arcpy.ListFeatureClasses()
for fc in fcs:
    desc = arcpy.da.Describe(fc)
    alias = desc['aliasName']

# Then print alias or put it in a list of things to write to a csv.

[JoshuaBixby]

For a geodatabase table or feature class, "aliasName" is an inherited from Geodatabase Table properties - ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

[HaydenWelch]

Just a warning, the da.Describe can get really expensive. Describing a geo database takes a few milliseconds with regular Describe, and everything else is lazy loaded as you access it, but da.Describe will parse the whole tree and can take seconds sometimes.

[DanPatterson]

Alternate Perspective:

Of course "seconds" would probably be important in emergency uses of GIS 😁

For others it provides a welcome respite from an otherwise harrowing day.

[HaydenWelch]

Absolutely agree, there have been tons of times that I've bitten the bullet and allowed operations to drag on because the alternative is spending a day or two doing that same thing by hand.

I just remember the first time I discovered da.Describe and foolishly re-wrote several processes to use it because it saved me a ton of boilerplate only to be shocked that those processes were now taking 10x as long and my co-workers were understandably upset!