Creating a list of keywords from the attribute table: New & Improved Version
Problem: You need a better way to summarize the contents of a dataset without wasting time typing a long list.
Back in March, I posted about creating a list of keywords from the attribute table. I knew that:
The solution I have come up with is not perfect. I keep thinking there must be a better way.
I had explained how to make a list of the administrative area types in the Natural Earth Admin 1 shapefile, using ArcMap’s “Summarize” tool. The end result was a text file that had extra quotation marks, commas, and other characters to remove.
There is a better way — with Python! I now have the power to structure the text file the way I want it from the start. Here’s the entire code:
import arcgisscripting
gp = arcgisscripting.create(9.3)
report = file(r"C:\gis\AdminTypes.txt", "w")
shape = r"C:\gis\10m-admin-1-states-provinces-shp.shp"
cur = gp.SearchCursor(shape)
row = cur.Next()
adminList = []
while row <> None:
adminList.append(row.ENGTYPE_1)
row = cur.Next()
adminList = list(set(adminList))
adminList.sort()
for admin in adminList:
report.write(admin + "\n")
report.close()
print "Finished"
Change only the portions marked in red to make this work with any data layer. They represent, in order from top to bottom:
- The output text file
- The input data layer
- The name of the attribute table field to summarize
The text file generated by this code is a list of each unique entry in the ENGTYPE_1 field (all duplicates removed) — one per line, in alphabetical order. It’s the exact same thing you would see in the table of contents if you symbolized by category on that field. Only now it’s in a form you can copy and paste into other places, like a metadata record.
Python makes everything better.
Tags: attribute table, keyword, list, python, report, text file