Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Using Python scripting
Due to the simplicity of Python, the 23-year-old scripting language has been widely used to
build various applications. Python has also been embedded into other products as a way to
extend its functionality. ArcGIS is one of these products that adopted Python for this pur-
pose. In this section, we will learn about a basic Python script to call existing geoprocess-
ing tools, and then we will use these scripts to create a small tool that automatically backs
up our
Bestaurant
geodatabase on a daily basis.
Note
To learn more about advanced Python scripting techniques, you can visit
www.Python.org
.
You don't have to install Python for the upcoming exercises; if you have ArcGIS for
Desktop 10.x, Python 2.7 is installed and configured and ready for use. Let's do some basic
warm up exercises on Python before we start on the real work:
1. Click on the
Start
menu, expand the
ArcGIS
folder, expand
Python 2.7
, and then
click on
IDLE (Python GUI)
to open the Python editor, as shown in the following
screenshot:
