Script tool Data List paths

[JimHall]

Is there a better way to use the multivalue property in a script tool?  This code works except when the paths to folders have spaces.

# Script arguments CensusDataList = string.split(arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0), ";")  #Loop through each state directory in the list to create an input value. for CensusState in CensusDataList:     CensusFeaturePath = CensusState + "\\bndrygbs.mdb\\hzCounty"     hzCounty_Inputs = hzCounty_Inputs + ";" + CensusFeaturePath 

If the paths for  CensusDataList are something like:
Path 1 
Path 2
I get  'Path 1';'Path 2' for the list.

If the paths are something like:
Path1 
Path2
I get Path1;Path2 for the list.

[curtvprice · Accepted solution]

Is there a better way to use the multivalue property in a script tool?

You could use GetParameter() instead of GetParameterAsText() and process it as a value table. This is the only approach for example, with a list of layer names if you want to handle layers that contain ";".  It's a lot more complicated to work with parameter objects, and harder to debug, so I try to avoid doing it that way.

Are you sure you are getting quotes? The best way to check is with repr:

CensusDataList = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0).split(";") for d in CensusDataList:     print repr(d)

If you do indeed have extra quotes, you could strip them like this:

CensusDataList = string.split(arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0), ";") CensusDataList = [d.strip("'") for d in CensusDataList] 

And avoid spaces in paths -- just trouble as far as I'm concerned!

One more thing, in arcpy, tools can read lists, so you don't need to join them back together with ";" delimiters:

#Loop through each state directory in the list to create an input value (another list) hzCounties = ["{}\\bndrygbs.mdb\\hzCounty".format(p)                      for p in CensusDataList]

[JimHall]

It is the script tool form that is adding in the extra quote only when needed.  This or the spaces break the tool inputs further in my code.  I did the following which allows paths to folders to have spaces or not and generate the list of data for processing. I left in my old code commented out for comparison.

#the script tool is looking for multiple folders here
CensusDataList = string.split(arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0), ";")

CensusDataList = [d.strip("'") for d in CensusDataList]

#Loop through each state directory in the list to create input values.

#for CensusState in CensusDataList:
    #CensusFeaturePath = CensusState + "\\bndrygbs.mdb\\hzCounty"
    #hzCounty_Inputs = hzCounty_Inputs + ";" + CensusFeaturePath
hzCounty_Inputs = ["{0}\\bndrygbs.mdb\\hzCounty".format(p)
                    for p in CensusDataList]

I agree that spaces should not be used in paths but.....  :rolleyes:

Thanks for your help!