Latest Contributions by BlakeTerhune

That is pretty nifty. It took me a moment to realize it's dynamic in that the code can dynamically choose the tool to run (based on some logic) rather than getting dynamic input from the user. And when you say unpack the arguments, you're referring to the items in the list. If your tool only has one argument, I found you can pass it just bare (without the list) if you get rid of the asterisk. But that is just me experimenting, your way is recommended since it will accommodate all cases. Thanks for the post! ... View more

It doesn't sound like you are doing any edits (step 2.3 and 2.4), but are you starting an edit session in there anywhere? ArcGIS Help 10.2 - Editor (arcpy.da) If yes, are you explicityly stopping the edit session? If no, why do you need to create a version for read-only operations? EDIT: Just to verify your code works, try a simplified version of your script that just creates the version and then deletes it. Then scale it up to create the version, switch to it, switch back to Default, then delete the version. The success or failure of these actions might help troubleshoot the problem. ... View more

I'm just guessing here, but try running the Clear Workspace Cache Data Management tool before you delete the version. ArcGIS Help 10.2 - Clear Workspace Cache (Data Management) ... View more

Just for funzies, if you are using a simple counter like you do at the end with ctr, you can also use += 1 to make the code a little simpler. Just know that += might not always be what you want. ctr += 1 ... View more

I'll just leave this here while someone in the community works on posting an answer to your question Posting Code blocks in the new GeoNet ... View more

I haven't made an add-in yet, but it seems like you're trying to make your easy button too easy! Just train your users how to add the required tools to the toolbar. At some point you reach diminishing returns trying to code for so many exceptions. Just an observation, I could be way off. ... View more

Cool trick about using the global list. I didn't know you could do that in a field calc! ... View more

I have a similar situation. I just tested using truncate and append on a file geodatabase with locks. If it was just a geodatabase lock (like some had it open in ArcCatalog) the truncate/append worked. However, if someone had the feature class being truncated open in ArcCatalog preview, the truncate worked but the append failed with ERROR 000224: Cannot insert features Failed to execute (Append). I tested this on 10.2.2 using Pyhon. EDIT: If the feature class is opened in ArcCatalog with geometry preview, truncate/append works. If it's open with table preview, truncate works but append fails. Same thing happens with ArcMap; if the feature class is open in data view it will truncate/append but if the attribute table is also open it will truncate but fail to append. ... View more

Ah, yes, I follow now. However, I think you have to put an extra comma after the variable inside the parenthesis to make it a true tuple. fld_name = "Particle" print fld_name print (fld_name) print (fld_name,) produces: Particle Particle ('Particle',) ... View more

But the Esri documentation for the Update cursor says: For a single field, you can use a string instead of a list of strings. I'm not trying to be a nit-pick know-it-all, I'm just trying to understand. ... View more

In the line where you open the update cursor, why do you have extra parenthesis around fld_name? with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(fc, (fld_name)) as curs: ... View more

Great point Richard. I did a little research and I found the reserved keywords in Python 2.7‌ Although TABLE is not a Python reserved keyword, it is in SQL and so it should be avoided. ... View more

The PEP8 Style Guide is a great place to start. Now that you a familiar with the syntax, the style guides will make more sense. From the start, the style guides recommend putting each module you import on its own line. So instead of this import time, sys, platform, imp, arcpy Do this import arcpy import imp import platform import sys import time Inline comments are helpful but can be overdone, so be careful. They should also be separated from the code line by at least two spaces (you only have one). Consider the maximum line length. Super long lines of code are very hard (for a human) to interpret and arcpy functions are notorious for turning into monsters. Try declaring more of your function arguments as variables and take advantage of the multi-line capabilities within the parenthesis. Instead of this arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management(outLayer, "NEW_SELECTION", ' "DCA1" = 80003 OR "DCA2" = 80003 OR "DCA3" = 80003 OR "DCA1" = 11006 OR "DCA2" = 11006 OR "DCA3" = 11006 ') Do this where_clause = ' "DCA1" = 80003 OR "DCA2" = 80003 OR "DCA3" = 80003 OR "DCA1" = 11006 OR "DCA2" = 11006 OR "DCA3" = 11006 ' arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management(     outLayer,     "NEW_SELECTION",     where_clause ) Or you can take advantage of multiline strings and do something like this for the where clause. I used triple double quotes (""") but those are typically used for docstrings so I try to use triple single quotes ('''). However, the GeoNet forums do funny things with triple single quotes in Python syntax highlighting so I had to write this with triple double quotes. where_clause = """     "DCA1" = 80003     OR "DCA2" = 80003     OR "DCA3" = 80003     OR "DCA1" = 11006     OR "DCA2" = 11006     OR "DCA3" = 11006 """ But I would go even further and actually improve the SQL for the where clause and do this where_clause = """     "DCA1" IN(8003,11006)     OR "DCA2" IN(8003,11006)     OR "DCA3" IN(8003,11006) """ It may also help to declare some smaller local variables at the beginning of the code block it will be used in rather than everything at the beginning. Or you can use comments to group the variables by use, like "connections", "tables", "feature classes", etc. When opening files to read and write (like you've done at the end with the log file), it's better practice to use a with statement so the file is always closed, even if there was an error. If your current code errored after you opened the file and before you closed it, the file would not get closed. Finally, a lot of Python IDEs style two types of comments differently: # and ## I like to use the single hash comment (#) for the heading of a large block of code and the double hash (##) for headings under the main heading or for inline comments. I also try to put one line between the main blocks of code and no lines between code that is all together so you can visually group the major blocks of logic. If a block of code is too long to easily fit this style, then it might be better off written as a function and called from your main(). I'm still learning Python myself and started just like you, Matthew. Please correct me if my assumptions are wrong! ... View more