error importing arcpy.da package into my Python IDE
I am coding in a Python IDE (integrated development environment), not in Pro. When I do import arcpy, I can then work with most everything I need. For example, as I write my code, I get code hints telling me about objects, functions, and properties, as you can see in this screenshot:
Now, if I try to work with anything in the arcpy.da package, I don't get code hints, and also get errors in the IDE's editor. Hovering my mouse over the error, it says "Undefined variable from import: Describe".
I get basically the same error if I try this:
from arcpy.da import Describe
Just to be clear, my code executes just fine. The issue is that my IDE doesn't give me any hints on coding this and it decorates that line with an error. Of course, looking for errors is an important part of coding, so this is super annoying.
I see this trying to use external source code, for example. I resolve that by adding the packages to my PythonPath. But when I look at the source in arcpy.da, it is iterating over all the modules from arcgisscripting.da and adding them . As far as I can tell, all of arcpy.da is in a .pyd file here:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\ESRI\conda\envs\<env>\Lib\site-packages\arcgisscripting\_arcgisscripting.pyd
My (very limited) understanding is .pyd files are DLLs that are loaded at run time. This makes sense that my IDE doesn't know what to do with it in advance, but it runs just fine. Any advice on how to add modules from a pyd file to the PythonPath is appreciated.
FWIW: My IDE is PyDev in Eclipse. I mention this last, since it seems like a general problem and don't want to get dragged into the specifics of PyDev.
Note - Once I get the program running and stop it at a breakpoint, now I can work with everything just fine. This also fits with the idea of it not loading the modules until run-time. In this case, I imported arcpy and started to type the name of a function in the arcpy.da package and it came up with code hints.
works fine in Spyder, I just have my tips/help directed to a separate window, rather than cluttering up my visual space as I type... but the info is there
That has the same result. I think that's the problem is the whole arcgisscripting package loads from a DLL (as a .pyd file) at runtime and not as source code. The import produces an error in my IDE, but will execute.
My IDE can add DLL and PYD files to my PythonPath, but I have to locate it in order to do so. I have traced through the Esri source code about as far as I'm able to. It ends up calling function convertArcObjectToPythonObject in C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Pro\Resources\ArcPy\arcobjects\arcobjectsconversion.py and that's where I lose the trail.
Clearly, there is something slightly less persistent in my IDE's imports, but looking at Esri's code, well, it's sharks with lasers...
