Learning ArcGIS Python Scripting

Learn how to automate tasks in ArcGIS using Python scripting. Find out how to manipulate maps, execute commands, and read and write files with custom Python scripts.

Have you ever needed to find all the broken links in a set of map documents? Or convert units before loading map data? Python is the gateway for automating common GIS tasks like these. Python scripts can be used to manipulate maps, execute commands, and even read and write data from files. Learn how to produce faster, deeper insights into your GIS data by adding Python scripting to ArcGIS Desktop. This course starts with the basics, including strings, variables, and conditional statements. Jennifer Harrison—founder of TeachMeGIS—gets you comfortable writing scripts in IDLE, the integrated development environment for Python, and ramps up to writing output to the screen, passing command-line arguments into scripts, and reading from and writing to a log file. She also introduces the ArcGIS arcpy module for creating map documents and shows how to integrate customized scripting tools into ArcMap.

Introduction

• Leverage Python in ArcGIS
• What you should know

1. Python for ArcGIS Basics

• Scripting overview
• Python throughout ArcGIS
• Compose and run scripts in an IDE
• Write your first script

2. Strings, Numbers, and Variables

• Use variables to make scripts flexible
• Work with numeric values

3. Syntax Rules

• Basic Python syntax rules
• Comment scripts
• Reserved words

4. Manipulating Strings

• Special string characters
• Additional manipulations
• String functions
• Help for string functions

5. Object-Oriented Programming

• Object-oriented programming (OOP) overview
• Objects, properties, and methods
• Incorporating site packages
• ArcGIS Python module
• Basics of ArcPy
• Help for ArcPy

6. Using Loops

• Use loops to work with lists
• Use the foreach loop
• Help for list functions
• Nested loops
• Conditional statements

7. Generate Log Files

• Read and write to a text file
• Write multiple records to a file

8. Input at Run Time

• Making scripts dynamic
• Command-line arguments
• Capture arguments in a list variable
• Work with toolboxes in ArcMap
• Creating a custom toolbox

9. Help Documents

• Documenting a script

Conclusion

• Next steps