Programming ArcGIS with Python Cookbook, Second Edition

Chapter 9. Listing and Describing GIS Data

In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:

• Working with the ArcPy list functions
• Getting a list of fields in a feature class or table
• Using the Describe() function to return descriptive information about a feature class
• Using the Describe() function to return descriptive information about a raster image

Introduction

Python provides you with the ability to batch process data through scripting. This helps you automate workflows and to increase the efficiency of your data processing. For example, you may need to iterate through all datasets on disk and perform a specific action for each dataset. The first step is often to perform an initial gathering of data before proceeding to the main body of the ...