Passing value from GetParameterAsText to row.getValue()?

Question

I am trying to build a simple tool that concatenate values from two fields, and recording it in newly created field - everything within the same table. This tool should work with any shapefile, concatenate any type of fields and create a field (with name chosen by user). My problem is how to pass value of 'new_field_name" in to row.getValue() (second last row of the code). Or any other ways of doing the same?

import time, arcpy
startTime = time.clock()
print "Start"
shapefile = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0)
field_name_1 = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(1)
field_name_2 = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(2)
new_field_name = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(3)
new_field_length = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(4)
separator = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(5)
arcpy.env.workspace = shapefile
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True
arcpy.AddField_management(shapefile, new_field_name, "Text", "", "", new_field_length)
cur = arcpy.UpdateCursor(shapefile)
for row in cur:
 row.getValue() = (str(row.getValue(field_name_1)) + separator + str(row.getValue(field_name_2)))
 cur.updateRow(row)

• ChrisL: I am using arcgis 10.0 so I am not sure if I can use da.UpdateCursor(s) ...just to give you more details. script is working fine once I replace row.getValue() with row.(here is hard coded new field name). But I want to have flexibility here, that is why I want to use a value given by user in arcpy.GetParameterAsText(3)

Answer 1

If you need to use the plain UpdateCursor, use setValue instead of getValue

cur = arcpy.UpdateCursor(shapefile)
for row in cur:
 newValue = str(row.getValue(field_name_1)) + separator + str(row.getValue(field_name_2))
 row.setValue(new_field_name, newValue)
 cur.updateRow(row)

Cursor syntax gets a little simpler when you can use the da.UpdateCursor:

with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(shapefile, [field_name_1, field_name_2, new_field_name]) as cursor:
 for row in cursor:
 newValue = str(row[0]) + separator + str(row[1])
 row[2] = newValue
 cursor.updateRow(row)

• ChrisL: That is exactly what I have been looking for. Thanks for the setValue example!

Answer 2

Try row.setValue for the newly added column in your update cursor.

• ChrisL: at the end that was the setValue, but I couldnt make it work :/