Use update cursor in arcpy to count number of points within each polygon

Question

I have two shapefiles. One contains many points across a state. The other is all the counties within the state. I would like to do two things:

1. use a cursor to count how many points are in each county and then populate a new field with those data; and
   2. create a true/false field in which true = the county contains more than two points.

I started the first one but was unsuccessful, so the second I'm not sure how to accomplish. This is what I have so far...

import arcpy
points = r"C:\Users\points"
counties = r"C:\Users\counties"
#create new fields
arcpy.AddField_management(counties, "numOfPoints", "LONG", field_length = 10)
arcpy.AddField_management(counties, "hasTwoPoints", "LONG", field_length = 10)
points_lyr = arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(points,r'in_memory\points_lyr')
counties_lyr = arcpy.MakeFeatureLayer_management(counties,r'in_memory\counties_lyr')
# Create an update cursor to access and update states features
#NAME has names of counties and numPoints will be populated with number of points 
fields = ['NAME','numOfPoints','hasTwoPoints']
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(counties_lyr,fields) as cur:
 for row in cur:
 county = row[0]
 where = '"NAME" = \'{}\''.format(county)
 arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management(counties_lyr,'NEW_SELECTION',where)
 arcpy.SelectLayerByLocation_management(points_lyr,'INTERSECT',counties_lyr)
 number_of_points = int(arcpy.GetCount_management(counties_lyr).getOutput(0))
 row[1] = number_of_points
 cur.updateRow(row)
print('Operation complete.')

The current script works, but it populates the field 'numOfPoints' with all 1 values which is not correct.

then at the end to add the true/false based on the output to be a stand alone script,

fields2 = ['numOfPoints','hasTwoPoints']
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(counties_lyr,fields2) as cur:
 for row in cur:
 if row[0] > 1: row[1] = 'TRUE'
 else: row[1] = 'FALSE'
 cur.updateRow(row)

I get this error: StopIteration: iteration not started

• Zachary Ordo - GISP: Can you add a message pop-up or print the contents of your variables where, number_of_points, and row[1]? This may help you troubleshoot the problem. You can delete this message or print command once you've narrowed down and fixed the issue. Also, where you assign number_of_points, it appears you may be getting the count of the number of counties selected, not the count of the rigs_lyr layer.
• GBG: You can use the spatial join tool to create a new shapefile. The resulting shapefile will have a new attribute listing the number of points in each polygon. Then use a select by attribute and a field calculation to identify those records with a count of two or more. If you still want to use the Python approach look at geometry objects which include a method to return point counts in polygons. This approach will work faster than all the selections you have.

Answer 1

You've got one line messed up:

When you calculate number_of_points, you want to GetCount the points_lyr, not the counties_lyr.

with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(counties_lyr,fields) as cur:
 for row in cur:
 county = row[0]
 where = '"NAME" = \'{}\''.format(county)
 arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management(counties_lyr,'NEW_SELECTION',where)
 arcpy.SelectLayerByLocation_management(points_lyr,'INTERSECT',counties_lyr)
 number_of_points = int(arcpy.GetCount_management(points_lyr).getOutput(0))
 row[1] = number_of_points
 cur.updateRow(row)
print('Operation complete.')

To do the second part of your question, you've got to clear all the selections:

arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management(counties_lyr, "CLEAR_SELECTION")
arcpy.SelectLayerByAttribute_management(points_lyr, "CLEAR_SELECTION")
fields2 = ['numofpoints','has2points']
with arcpy.da.UpdateCursor(counties_lyr,fields2) as cur:
 for row in cur:
 if row[0] > 1:
 row[1] = 1
 else:
 row[1] = 0
 cur.updateRow(row)

• dand: You were right. Thanks. And how would I populate a new field if the previous calculation was greater than or equal to 2? Meaning the county has more than 1 point in it...
• Jvhowube: Below the cur.updateRow(row), I would add: if row[1] > 1: row[2] = 1 else: row[2] = 0 cur.updateRow(row)
• dand: With this code, it only populates the last row in the table. But above is another set of stand alone code but it's giving an error message.
• Jvhowube: Check out the edits above - it works now.